


The ocean's blue is really the same as sky's

by Varpusvaras



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Little bit of a slow burn, M/M, Ocean girl-inspired, Other Fantasy/Sci-Fi-elements, Riku is a mess, at least some degree lol, i have no idea what i am doing, mermaid au, merman sora
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-05-01 16:20:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 106,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14524479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Varpusvaras/pseuds/Varpusvaras
Summary: Riku knew there was something in the ocean not many were aware of, and he really wanted to keep it that way. But the world had a bad habit of doing the exact opposite of what he wanted, and Riku was running out of ideas of what to do with the boy with sky blue eyes the ocean had trusted him with.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've have had the worst writer's block ever in my life for the past few months, and I suddenly got rid of it just to write this (I actually just sat down and wrote this almost in one sitting). Inspired by Canary's art (which is super cute and I'm absolutely obsessed with it) and various other mermaid medias, especially Ocean girl, which I saw when I was like barely a human, and I didn't know the shows name for 15 years and it haunted me deeply.
> 
> Unbetad, because I don't actually know people.

For the longest time, ocean was everything Riku knew.

The Island was small, it took only an hour tops to drive around it, not that many people had cars. It was much easier to use boats to go around the island, as the water was comfortably shallow, and people let each other to use their personal little docs they had build all around the beaches. It was also much easier to just sail to the neighbouring islands than take the ferry, which went through the archipelago only couple of times a day. Once from the biggest island to the farthest one, and then back.

At the age 5, farthest Riku had ever been was the closest neighbouring island, which was half an hour away. His dad was a fisherman, which was not by any means an uncommon occupation on islands. But his dad went all the way to the deeper waters and could stay there with his small crew for a few days at times, and to do that, he needed a bigger boat. Riku was sure it was the biggest boat on the entire island and could take them to the neighbouring island faster than anyone else’s. His dad would always take Riku with him when he went there to sell the fish to the small shops. Running around on the deck of the boat made Riku feel like he was going to an adventure, somewhere many times farther away than only to another island. Being out on the water always made him buzz with excitement like it was the first time he had ever stepped away from land.

His dad would laugh at him every time too.

 

“You’re just like your mother”, he would say.

“She was always as excited as you are when she would get of land.”

 

Riku did not remember his mother. He had only seen her in pictures, and she looked young and happy in every single one of them. Tall and way tanner than Riku was, with dimples and sun-bleached hair. The most certain evidence Riku had of her actually being his mother were her eyes. They were the same bright aquamarine as Riku’s, in comparison of his dads dark brown.

His dad wouldn’t really tell him anything about her. Even if his voice was light and things he said were happy and positive, there wasn’t actually much he said. Riku knew that his mother had moved to the islands when she had been 15, along with her parents, who had died before Riku was born. She and his dad had met few years later, gotten married after dating for couple more, and had him soon after that. His dad would talk about their walks on the beach, about how his mother liked being on the boat, but that was pretty much everything.

It was okay, still. Riku didn’t really miss her, for she had never been there, and in Riku’s five-year-old head, his mother was just another story of a person who existed in somewhere else than his reality. There was only one thing about her that bothered Riku, and at five years of age, he decided that he wanted an answer.

It was another one of those days. His dad had returned to the island and picked Riku up from the neighbours who always looked after him when his dad was away. They then made their way down to the docs, and his dad helped Riku up to the deck. It was very sunny day, and his dad made Riku put on a t-shirt with longer sleeves and in Riku’s mind, pretty much coated his skin with sunblock. But Riku didn’t mind that much, even if the sleeves got in the way or if the sunblock made his hair stick to his neck. All he cared about was the clear blue water around him as they made their way out of the docs.

Again, Riku would hear his dad laughing loudly over the wind and the waves.

 

“Just like your mother”, he said, like he said every time, with certain fondness in his eyes. But this time Riku was ready, and as soon as he said those words, Riku climbed into the cabin next to his dad.

 

“Why did mom go?” he asked.

 

Riku liked to think that he was pretty smart for a five-year-old. He knew that his grandparents were dead and in heaven, and Riku knew that it meant they were not coming back. But his dad had never said that mom was in heaven, too. So Riku simply assumed that she had gone away.

His dad fell quiet and didn’t look at Riku. He didn’t look at Riku, staring right at the ocean instead, and his mouth went from smile to a straight line. Riku didn’t like that at all, and he regretted even asking.

Then his dad sighed, deep and loud, and turned back to look at Riku.

 

“She was just like you”, he said.

 

“Always excited to go to the ocean, constantly walking down the beaches, never calming down while she was on land. And I think, that she didn’t like the island as much as she loved the water, so that’s where she went.”

 

“To the ocean?” Riku asked, now confused.

“Did she have her own boat?”

 

His dad laughed, shortly and quiet, and shook his head.

“No, she didn’t have a boat”, he answered.

 

“Then how?” Riku asked.

“Did she swim?”

 

His dad laughed again, louder this time.

“Don’t think about it too much”, he said, and ruffled Riku’s hair.

“Your mother loved you, dearly, but she knew she couldn’t take you with her. When you are older, we can talk about this again. Okay?”

 

“Okay”, Riku agreed, even if he didn’t really want to wait until he was older. As said, Riku liked to think he was pretty smart, and he couldn’t fathom the idea of being more capable of handling information later than he was now.

 

                                                                                                                      ⋆

 

They didn’t talk for the rest of the trip, and once they docked, Riku helped his dad to load the fish to the car waiting for them. The trip to the nearest town was only couple of minutes, but they couldn’t just carry all that fish there by themselves.

 

“Can I stay here?” Riku asked, when they were ready. It wasn’t the first time Riku had stayed by the boat and waited for his dad to return. But this time his dad looked at him again with the same expression he had had on the boat, lips pressed together, like something was wrong.

 

“Of course”, he said nevertheless, and ruffled Riku’s hair again.

“Wait here until I come back, and don’t go wandering off too far away. And no going into the water over your knees.”

 

“Okay”, Riku said, and when the car had disappeared from his sight, he hopped down from the dock to the beach.

 

The beach was bigger than the one they had on his island, with more big and sharp rocks forming barriers for the waves. The air was humid and hot, and all the hair in Riku’s neck were now stuck on his skin, thanks to the sweat forming on top of the sunblock. Thankfully the wind had picked up, and occasionally blew cool air harshly against his face. Riku could see that the sky was more grey than blue in the horizon, which he was sure meant that there was going to be thunder. Well, Riku didn’t mind, he wasn’t scared of lightnings like many of the other kids were. And besides, after the storm it would be not as hot, and he could wear his sleeveless shirts again.

Speaking of other kids, there were few of them playing on the beach. Couple of girls around the same age as Riku, tossing a ball between each other, and a little baby sitting on the sand next to other girl’s legs. Riku sat down on the rock to watch them. He was a friendly boy, really, but he just wasn’t that great with other kids. Especially if there were more than one. Two would go if he absolutely had to, but Riku really just wished for one best friend who would always be there to play just with him. But in his island, he was the only kid around five, and older kids just really saw him as some sort of extra little brother who they would leave behind to do their own stuff. So Riku was pretty much alone.

Wind picked up again. It was now cool enough to make skin on Riku’s arms chilly, and strong enough to form bigger waves further away from the beach. The grey clouds had creeper a little closer, and now Riku was really sure there was going to be a storm. It just made him even more confused about what his dad had said to him. If mom didn’t have a boat, that meant she had to swim, and Riku knew they were not allowed to swim when there were lightnings.

The ball the girls had been tossing between them was one of those colourful ones full of air like a balloon, and the next gust of wind snatched it mid air away from them and landed it right to the water. The retreating wave caught it up, and the ball floated quickly towards the open sea.

 

“Oh no, no!” other one of the girls cried, trying to run after the ball in vain.

“Mom’s going to be angry, this is the second ball already this week.”

 

“It’s just a ball”, the other girl said, picking up the baby who was now eating sand with both of its fists.

 

“But she told me not to take it on to the beach after the first one floated away”, the other girl sounded like she was going to cry.

“She hates when I don’t listen to her!”

 

Riku was a friendly little boy, really. His dad never really got angry at him, and Riku hated it when other adults shouted to their kids. It sounded awful. So he hopped down from the rock and jogged to the girls.

“I’m going to get it”, he said, and kicked his sandals of. He didn’t want them to float away as well.

 

“Are you sure?” the girl asked, looking anxiously at him and then again at the ball, which continued to float further away from them.

 

“Sure, sure”, Riku said. “Just wait here.”

 

Water was still pleasantly warm when Riku waded through it, but the waves were getting steadily higher and hit Riku’s thighs hard soon after he left the coastline. He could see the ball, it was lightly stuck between two rocks in the end of the barrier, and Riku hoped it would just stay there until he got to it.

He remembered his dad forbidding him going into the water over his knees when he was already waist deep and it was getting difficult to keep his feet on bottom. Riku glanced over his shoulder, but his dad was not there, only the girls and the baby, standing at the edge of the water, watching him. Well, what harm was it going to be, Riku knew he was a good swimmer and his feet still touched the bottom. Barely, but they still did. It would be a lot faster to just swim than to walk, so Riku took deep breath and submerged rest of his body.

It was fine for couple of minutes. Waves hit Riku repeatedly to his face, and he could taste the salt, but the ball was still stuck between the rocks and he was steadily getting closer to it. The shirt was just too big, really, and the waves under the surface started pulling it down and Riku with it more and more with every kick. But he was almost there, and as soon as he would grab the ball, he could turn around and swim back to the more shallow water. Riku bite his teeth together and tried to keep his head above the waves, which was getting more and more difficult as well, with salt water splashing over the top of his head.

What Riku had forgotten was that this island was bigger than his island, and the port was bigger too, since it was made for bigger boats like his dads. And that meant the water got deep very fast and abruptly, so when Riku tried to rest his legs just for a little bit, there was nothing beneath him anymore.

That was when Riku suddenly got scared, with his shirt and shorts pulling him down and his legs and arms tired from swimming against the waves, and he decided it would be for the best to just let the ball be and go back to the beach.

But he was tired, and when he tried to turn around, another big wave hit him over his head and pushed him downwards. Riku tried to get himself back up, but there was big wave again, and then his mouth was suddenly full of warm, salty water. The feeling of it going down on his throat got him distracted from swimming, and the moment he was not putting up against the waves, they started pulling him down even harder than before.

Riku wasn’t sure what happened after that. The waves made it impossible for him to move his limbs. The water stung his eyes and tried to get past his lips again, and Riku just really, really wanted to breathe.

He then saw the eyes. Glowing, blue eyes that appeared before him. Riku could see the outline of the face and arms against the dark water, as he was grabbed by his waist.

And then Riku’s head popped on the surface again. He took deep breath, which made him cough up water hard. While he was still coughing, his knees all of a sudden scraped against rough sand, and he realized that the water reached now only to his elbows. Riku snapped his head up.

He was on the beach again. Not on the same beach as before, the girls weren’t there anymore, and while looking around, Riku didn’t see any boats nearby. He figured that he was still on the same island, though, as he could see the reds and whites of the fairway buoys when he turned around to look at the sea. The buoys almost disappeared behind the waves, now tall and all white when crashing down against the rocks. It had started to rain, and while the raindrops were warm, Riku was shivering. He crawled out of the water and with aching lungs and limbs he collapsed on the sand. He closed his eyes, cheek pressed against the coarse land, and all he could see were the blue, glowing eyes in the water.

 

                                                                                                                     ⋆

 

Riku was not sure how long he lay there, but he was awoken from his flickering dreams by very loud shouting.

“Riku!” it sounded a lot like his dad, but there was something in the voice Riku didn’t recognise. The voice sounded scared, and Riku couldn’t remember his dad ever being scared before. Regardless of that, it was indeed his dad shouting, because when Riku lifted his head, he was there, on his knees on the sand and looking at Riku with his brown eyes wide. Before Riku could do anything, his dad had lifted him up and hugged him close, nose pressed against Riku’s damp hair.

“You’re okay”, he breathed, voice shaking. He still sounded wrong, like he was still scared, and Riku didn’t like it at all.

 

“Daddy”, Riku said, his own voice small and raw from all the water.

“Daddy, I’m sorry…”

 

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, it’s okay, you’re okay”, his dad shushed him and tucked him even closer.

“It’s okay. Let’s just get you home, okay? So you can have a nice and warm bath to get rid of all that sand, and dry clothes to put on, okay? You can sleep in my bed tonight, you like it better than your own bed, don’t you?”

 

His dads voice was still shaking, and he rose to his feet while talking, carrying Riku in his arms like he was still a small baby and not a tall and heavy five-year-old. Riku didn’t mind. He was tired, his whole body hurt, and he could still taste the salt on his tongue. So he let himself be carried, face buried in his dad’s shirt.

 

Later on that night, when Riku’s hair was damp from the bath and not from the ocean and rain, and he was tucked in comfortably in his dads big and soft bed, dressed in his favourite pyjamas, he remembered the eyes again.

“Daddy”, he said. His dad lifted his gaze from the book he was reading.

 

“Yes? What is it?”

 

“I saw something in the water today.”

 

His dad lifted his eyebrows, and put the book down.

“What did you see, then?” he asked, and while he was smiling, Riku could hear a strange edge on his voice.

 

“I’m not sure”, Riku told him.

“It looked like a human, I think. It had arms like mine. But it had these blue eyes, and they glowed.”

 

His dad hummed, thoughtfully.

“Did it help you?” he asked then.

 

“I think so”, Riku answered.

“Because I got back to the beach, and I don’t remember swimming there.”

 

“I think it helped you, too”, his dad said, stroking Riku’s hair gently.

“Maybe it saw your eyes and knew that you were one of them.”

 

“What do you mean?” Riku asked, crunching his nose in confusion.

 

“You see, there are two kinds of people”, his dad said.

“One’s like I am, who live on the land, and then the one’s who live in the ocean.”

 

“Like mermaids?” Riku asked. He had read about them in the books their neighbour had, people who were half human, half fish.

 

“Yes. They may have a different name they call themselves, one we don’t know, but let’s call them that for now”, his dad said.

“They usually keep to themselves, but sometimes, it can happen that a mermaid can fall in love with a human. As far as I know, that’s what happened in your mother’s family, somewhere long ago.”

 

Riku gasped, not in confusion anymore, but in awe.

“So mom’s a mermaid?” he asked.

“Is that how she could go into the ocean without a boat?”

 

His dad blinked at him couple of times, and then laughed.

 “Are you still thinking about that?” he shook his head slightly, with amused expression.

“But, no, your mom was not a mermaid, not fully. But one doesn’t have to be a full mermaid to feel the ocean’s call. And it got too strong for her, so she had to leave, for she would have been sad to stay on the land.”

 

Riku was silent for a long moment, thinking about what his dad had just told him. He then huffed.

“She could visit sometimes”, he said. His dad laughed again.

 

“Yes, she could. But I think it would be too difficult for her”, he said. He patted Riku on the cheek.

“But maybe, someday, you can go visit her. But right now, it is time for you to go to sleep. It has been a long day for both of us.”

 

Riku wanted to object, but as he opened his mouth, the only thing that came out was a huge yawn. His dad chuckled, and kissed Riku on the forehead before picking up his book again.

“Sweet dreams, my little merboy”, his dad said. Riku closed his eyes and dreams came to him quickly, full of laughing people with bright blue eyes, one of them with sun bleached hair and eyes like his.

 

                                                                                                                     ⋆ 

 

Upon hearing what had happened, people on the island were sure that Riku would never want to go to the water again. And they were all more than confused when he was even more keen of the ocean than he had been before. He would hop from rock to rock until he was farthest from the beach he could possibly get, and he would sit there for a long time, feet tangling in the water and talking quietly to himself.

Riku wasn’t really sure what he was doing. His dad didn’t know much about the people in the ocean, and Riku didn’t know, if they could even hear him talking to them. But it didn’t hurt to try.

A week after the storm, Riku found seashells arranged neatly into the shape of a star on top of the rock he used to sit on. He took them home and put them on his windowsill next to his bed, so he could look at them while falling asleep. Sometimes he was sure he heard whistling coming from the ocean, when there were no boats anywhere near where the sound came.  One day Riku tried to whistle back, and he felt bubbling warmness in his chest when he got an answer.

For the longest time, ocean was everything Riku knew. The small island surrounded by clear blue water was everything there was for him. But as he got older, he started to see the lines under his dads eyes getting deeper, and his smiles getting smaller. Riku noticed too late that the fishing trips his dad made became shorter and shorter each passing year, until one day, when Riku was ten and already getting tall and long-legged, he sat Riku down with him.

 

“I’m so sorry”, his dad said, looking at him with new kind of sadness in his eyes.

“I know you love the island and you love the ocean and what’s in it, but we have no choice. I’m sure you’ll get used to the new place, even if it’s not the same.”

 

“It’s okay”, Riku said, even when he couldn’t look his dad in the eyes while speaking.

His dad left the next day, and returned a week later with a white van he had bought and tickets for a liner for both of them. Riku had sat the entire week on the rock, looking out to the ocean. He wrapped the seashells very carefully and put them in his backpack, while everything else he owned was stuffed in big cardboard boxes and carried out of the house.

Riku didn’t look back when they drove away. He kept his eyes fixed on the ocean outside of the cars window, making himself vow he would never forget what the blue of the water looked like.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for nice comments and kudos! It was a little nerve-wracking to publish something after 4 or so years, but that has thankfully mainly dissipated now :D  
> I decided that I try to publish a new chapter once a week, probably on Thursdays or Fridays. And I apologize in advantage for long chapters, I've been working with novel-length stories for the past years and my brain just. can't make short chapters.

Riku was awoken by a knee right into his crotch.

It was a really disorienting experience. His mind was still in the world of sleep, but his body was not, and so for a good moment, Riku was not sure about where he was, if the pain was real or if it was just something his mind was making up very realistically.

 

“Oh, no”, a voice said then.

“I’m sorry, oh gosh, are you okay?”

 

That was when Riku’s brain finally picked up the fact that he was not sleeping anymore, the pain was real and there was someone _in his room._

He scrambled to sit up, which was really difficult with his blanket wrapped around his legs like a saran wrap, ready to defend himself against whoever the assaulter was.

 

“Hey, calm down, calm down, it’s just me!” the assaulter said. Riku blinked a couple of times to clear his vision.

 

“Kairi?” indeed, Kairi was sitting at the end of his bed. She had her hands up in front of her defensively, and she was looking as shaken up as Riku was feeling.

 

Riku blinked again, trying to make sense of the situation.

“What”, he sucked in a breath, trying also to ignore the still-present throbbing in his groin, “what are you doing here?”

 

“You missed the morning classes”, Kairi explained.

“And you didn’t answer your phone, so I searched up your address and came to see if you’re okay.”

 

Oh, shoot, what was the time? Riku searched for his phone, then remembered what had happened to it last night, and holding back a sigh he turned to Kairi again.

“How did you get in?” he asked. The door to his apartment was hard to get through even with the key, even for Riku. And while Kairi was a strong girl, Riku was still over two heads taller than her and much, much more muscular.

 

“I saw the window was open”, Kairi said.

“And I could see your jacket hanging on top of the closet from outside, so I decided to climb in.”

 

Oh, yeah. Riku glanced at the now fully-open window next to his bed. The last few days had been unpleasantly hot and created an almost tropical climate inside Riku’s bedroom. He had decided to leave the window slightly open when he had went to sleep, in hopes of getting some cooler air in the room.

He decided not to mention out loud the fact that he lived in the third floor of the apartment complex.

 

“So kneeing me into my dick is your idea of waking me up?” Riku asked instead.

“I get that I slept in and missed all of the classes, which probably made Mrs. Paoa very sad, but what have I ever done to you?”

 

“It was an accident!” Kairi exclaimed.

“I didn’t know your bed was right under the window. I am very sorry for landing on to you. I can buy you lunch to make up for it?”

 

Kairi smiled at him apologetically, and Riku decided to just give in. He rubbed his face and sighed.

“Okay, okay”, he said.

“Now can you please excuse me, so I can get up and put on some clothes?”

 

“Get a shower too while you’re at it, keeping the window open clearly didn’t help you enough. It feels like in a vivarium in here”, Kairi said, climbing down from the bed.

“I’m going to make coffee, so we’ll get to the cafeteria before the lunch period is over.”

 

“Thanks”, Riku said, as Kairi strode out of his bedroom towards the kitchen. He untangled himself from the blanket, grabbed his towel from the chair and made his way to the bathroom.

Riku liked the apartment enough. It was near the university and the beach and it had everything he needed (except working air conditioning), but he really couldn’t understand the thought process behind the bathroom’s design. It was already cramped, but still instead of just a shower, there was a big and bulky bathtub which took up half of the room’s space. The leftover space was barely enough for Riku to even turn around, and usually he ended up knocking some part of his body into the walls, doorframes or to the sink.

Riku fished up his swimming shorts from the tub, as well as his phone he had just left there in last night in his exhaustion. It still didn’t turn on, and Riku let out a quiet mantra of curse words. He really didn’t have money right now to buy a new one.

Thanks to the swimming shorts, the whole tub now smelled vaguely like ocean water, and Riku made a mental note to remember to rinse his clothes better next time. He really didn’t want Kairi to smell the lingering salt water as well. Not that she didn’t already know why he had missed all of the morning classes anyway, Riku thought climbing in to the tub and turning the water to ice-cold.

 

                                                                                                                   ⋆

 

“So”, Riku said.

“What did I miss?”

 

After very hastily drunken cup of coffee, Kairi had dragged Riku out of the apartment (through the door, thankfully) and to one of the campus cafeterias she really liked for some reason. Well, it was not like Riku really complained, since Kairi had kept her word and had paid for Riku’s meal too.

 

“Nothing too important”, Kairi answered as Riku tucked in to his butterfish curry.

“Mr. Seoh gave some stuff for the essay, which is due next Friday, just a reminder. Mrs. Paoa really was sad when you didn’t show up, but I promised that I’ll tell you about what we went through.”

 

“I’ll show up next week”, Riku promised. He liked Mrs. Paoa and he liked her class, so he actually did feel bad too about not going.

“What about topography class?”

 

“It was about erosion in the coastal areas and agglomeration of sediments”, Kairi answered.

“You should really start coming in to the actual classes, or Mr. Avelino is not going to let you pass.”

 

“He said attendance is not mandatory, so he has to let me pass if I pass the exam”, Riku huffed.

 

“He puts all the stuff online anyway, I can just look it up later.”

 

Kairi rolled her eyes.

“And you call _me_ lazy”, she said, “when you are the one who doesn’t show up, while I drag myself to the class from the other side of the city.”

 

“I’m not lazy, I’m nocturnal”, Riku said.

“So 8 a.m class is just too early.”

 

“And I say you should start being diurnal like the rest of us”, Kairi shot back.

“Because seriously, Riku, I understand why you are doing this, but you can’t let it affect the rest of your life.”

 

Riku knew she was right. And he knew that if he started arguing now, Kairi would probably yank him from the ear and then proceed to lock him in his apartment during the nights for good. So he gave up right away.

“I know, I know”, Riku sighed, deeply and resigned. Kairi’s expression softened, and a small smile returned to her lips.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to be harsh”, she reached over the table and patted Riku on his arm.

 

“But what I mean is that you should seriously start socializing with other _people_ too.”

 

“I am socializing with you right now”, Riku pointed out.

“And I think most of the people are little…intimidated by me.”

 

Riku didn’t think he was that bad in socializing with his peers. He was friendly and at least in his own opinion, actually pretty out-going. But he admitted that he was still, at the age of 21, bad with bigger groups, and he still preferred having just one or two people around him at a time.

Kairi snorted.

“Might have something to do with you being mister tall, broody and handsome”, she grinned. Riku raised his eyebrows.

 

“I am not broody”, he argued, “and that’s not even how it goes.”

 

“Well I can’t actually call you tall, dark and handsome, since you’re pretty much the exact shade of powdered sugar.”

 

Riku groaned and decided to just go back to eating, as Kairi giggled at his sour expression. But she chose to not to tease him any further, and she pushed a strand of red hair behind her ear before picking up her own fork.

“But seriously, Riku”, she said.

“I love you, and I just want you to be happy. So you’ll tell me, if something happens, right?”

 

Riku swallowed the piece of fish he was chewing, and then nodded at her.

“Right”, he promised.

 

                                                                                                                        ⋆

 

Eleven years ago, when his dad couldn’t make a living out of fishing anymore, had sold their little house on the island and packed Riku and everything they owned in the van, they had moved far, far away from the islands, and even more far away from the ocean. His dad’s sister had lived inland, in the middle of large fields and wide, endless roads. His dad did continue fishing, but not with his own boat anymore, but with those large companies which used actual ships, and the crew would stay on one trip for weeks, even for months. They didn’t have friendly neighbours, who would take Riku in anymore, and they didn’t have enough money to pay for a nanny. So Riku moved to his aunt’s house, in to the eerie silence of surrounding cornfields. He started going to the same school as his cousins (Riku had never even met them before moving in with them), which was a lot bigger than the school on the islands. He went to the movies with them, to amusement parks, to school field trips, camping in national parks.

And he was miserable the whole time.

Of course Riku tried not to show it. He liked his aunt, he liked her husband and he liked his cousins well enough, so he felt that being sad would be like an insult towards them.

 

“What did you even do on the islands?” his oldest cousin, Maya, had asked him once. And Riku told her about how he would go swimming whenever he liked to, how his dad would take him to the neighbouring island, and how they practiced dancing with his former school. It had been everything Riku had known, and it was what he missed so much it made his stomach hurt. But Maya had stared at him, eyes big, like he had said something wrong.

 

“You didn’t have malls or anything? Or movie theatres?” she had asked. When Riku had shaken his head, she had rolled her eyes.

“Wow, I would become crazy if I had to live there. It sounds super boring.”

 

Not really, Riku had wanted to say, but he had kept his mouth shut.

 

That was when Riku had learned the unwritten rule of how everyone should absolutely have to hate their hometown. How quiet little towns were mundane and boring, and if you didn’t want out to see the world and to move to somewhere bigger, something was really wrong with you.

Riku could imagine, that if things had gone differently, he would have had felt the same way. In some other reality, he would’ve had agreed to Maya’s words and been happy about moving away from the islands, somewhere bigger and better. But the fields, just going on and on after mile after mile, the city, the national parks, they were what felt like a prison to him. He could no longer smell the water, hear the waves, feel them hitting softly against his calves when he stood in the shallow water in front of his old home, listening to the whistling coming from the ocean.

Riku wasn’t sure if he had even missed the islands in particular at that point, but the seemingly never-ending mass of land around him in every direction was what was driving _him_ crazy. It had made him so anxious that Riku in all seriousness had planned to change his name the second it would be possible. He now understood his mother better than he had ever imagined he would. Her desire to get away from the islands to the ocean, her desire to get away from _him,_ the thing that was tying her to the land, in every meaning of the word.

Riku never stopped believing in what his dad had told him all those years ago, when he had been laying in his dad’s bed after nearly drowning. At one point he almost did, though, when he was thirteen and his younger cousins had been watching The Little Mermaid in the living room. Riku had watched some of it with them, since he had never seen the movie and he was still very interested in anything that had something to do with merpeople.

He had watched in silence and realised that it didn’t make any sense. He knew how evolution worked, so suddenly the core idea of people who lived in the ocean and were half fish, half human sounded totally absurd. It wasn’t something that could exist in real life, only in children’s fairy tales.

Riku had felt the cold sweat forming on his skin, as he came into dreading conclusion. His mother had left for some other reason, had left Riku, and his dad had never recovered from it. So he made up a story about how she had mermaid-blood in her, probably after Riku had told him about what he had seen in the water. That human-like shape and those blue, glowing eyes must have been only a product of his confused and frightened mind, and his dad had used his childlike believing in tales in his advantage, to keep Riku believing.

How stupid he was, to be a teenager and still believe in stuff like merpeople, Riku had thought bitterly.

 

He had confronted his dad about it the next time he came back. His dad hadn’t said anything, he had just sat there listening to Riku’s words and accusations, until Riku was out of breath.

 

“Well?” Riku had almost panted.

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

 

His dad had looked at him, with his brown eyes that were so much the exact opposite of Riku’s blue, with the same sadness in them he had had when he had told Riku about moving away from the islands.

“I have never lied to you”, his dad had said.

“You can believe in whatever you want to, but you have to listen to your own heart, and not to what the world tries to force on you.”

 

He had not said anything else, leaving Riku to be even more confused and hurt.

His dad had woken him up very early the next morning and told him to pack up clothes for a few days. Riku had complied, even though he was still angry at him. They had driven for the entire day without speaking much, and at some point Riku had fallen asleep, only to be awaken to his dad turning off the car.

He had opened his eyes, looked out from windscreen and seen the blue vastness of the ocean glimmering in the rays of rising sun. Riku could still remember how fast his heart had started to beat, and how without a word to his dad, he had bolted out of the car and down the beach, right into the water.

In the exact moment his skin touched the water, it all came back to him. The ocean was colder, and the water was not as clear as it had been back in the islands, but it all still came back to him.

And Riku knew.

So when he had graduated high school and had to start filling out university applications, he had known exactly where he would be going.

 

The only requirement he had had for his apartment was that it had to be close to the beach. Everything else, he could overlook. The apartment complex was old and a little impractical during the summer (as said, it didn’t have air conditioning, which turned Riku into a melting mess), but at least he felt like he was home again.

Riku really liked university.  He liked most of the teachers and most of the classes, and he enjoyed the variety and that he got to study exactly what he was interested in (at the most part, he was not too fond of geoinformatics and the amount of working with software’s is recruited).

He had met Kairi during the second period of his first year. It had been advanced cellular biology course number 1, and the teacher had given each of them a pair, who would peer review their learning journal and papers before the exam. Riku had been paired up with her, and to be honest, Kairi was the best working partner he could’ve asked for. She was determined and punctual if needed to, and in general easy to get along with. Even when they didn’t major in the same subject (Riku majored in marine biology and Kairi in law and preservation), they still shared many of the general courses, and Riku had soon found out that Kairi had decided to stick to him.

Riku had never had too many friends growing up, and while he liked his cousins, he had never been too close to them. Riku never felt like he really understood their life, or that they understood his. But with Kairi, he almost felt like he knew what having a sister felt like.

And so it was almost a law of nature that Kairi would find out about Riku’s heritage.

 

Kairi had never doubted him. Even if she had her feet surely on the ground, she was free-spirited like that. So Riku telling her merpeople existed and that his mother had been a part mermaid was just another thing to her, along with chemistry and environmental treaties. But even her believing him didn’t stop her being worried about Riku’s nightly outdoor activities.

The thing was, Riku really didn’t know much about merpeople. When he had moved back to the coast, he had decided to try and see if these waters even had merpeople in them. What if they only liked more remote locations, with less people and other stuff? The city wasn’t really that big or busy, and many of the beaches were untouched or used just by surfers and divers, but it was still bigger than the towns in islands were. The water was warm almost around the year, though, which was something Riku figured people living in the water would appreciate.

So one night, a week after the first period in university had started, Riku had packed his swimming shorts in his backpack and searched for a nice, remote beach where he wouldn’t be disturbed. He had waded into the water knees deep and then listened.

Riku figured it was one skill which his merpeople blood gave him. While he didn’t understand the exact meanings of the sounds (nor could he produce many of them), he still, almost naturally, had a general idea of what different sounds meant. So after listening for a while to make sure no one else (a human) was nearby, he had whistled. Low note, a higher one, which had a sharp end. _Hello._

It has been quiet for a moment.

 

Then, a whistle came back to him. Low note, a higher one, with sharp end. And then two long, almost signing ones.

_Hello. A friend?_

 

Riku had laughed, with sheer relief in his chest, and then whistled back.

_A friend._

 

Going out during the nights became very soon almost a daily routine. Riku would do his school readings during lunch or free periods, then hang out with Kairi, then go home, eat, do his assignments and go to have a couple hour long nap. Then he would back up spare clothes and his little survival kit and go from beach to beach for few hours before going back to his apartment to catch some sleep before his first class.

There was stuff that was pretty much regular now. Riku would talk to the merpeople nearby and ask if they needed help with anything. Usually it was stuff like cleaning things up from the water, like abandoned nets, junk that had somehow ended up in the water, or he would gather up fishing nets or wire traps from the small coves, where people thought they would place illegal fishing tools without authorities finding them. If the nets and traps reappeared after he had removed them couple of times already, Riku would take pictures of them before the removal and report the place to the coastal guards. That usually worked for good.

The merpeople didn’t show themselves to Riku. It didn’t bother him, since Riku knew that he still looked like a human, so he didn’t blame them for being cautious. And they did return the service, like last night when Riku had dropped his phone to the water while trying to take a picture of one of the traps he kept finding night after night.  The water had been too deep and the night already too dark for him to retrieve it himself, and while Riku knew it would for sure be ruined, he didn’t want his junk to be in the ocean too. But there had been a sound of something rising up from the water a little further away from him, and then couple of quick whistles. _Here, here._

Of course, as Riku had suspected, the phone was not turning on anymore, but he still appreciated the sentiment. He had stayed a few extra hours that night, gathering as much stuff as he could before sunrise. He had been back to his apartment just couple of hours before his first class, and because it had been Mr. Avelino’s topography class, Riku had decided that he could sleep through it.

And that was how he ended up with broken phone, three missed classes instead of one, and Kairi breaking in to his apartment through the bedroom window and kneeing him in the crotch in the process.

Riku groaned and stretched his arms. He had attended to rest of his classes he didn’t share with Kairi, and gone through the stuff she had given him for Mr. Seoh’s essay.  Riku looked at the clock on his microwave.

20.08 PM already. Maybe he should listen to Kairi, and reduce his time spent by the ocean during the nights a little bit. It was true that he really didn’t have any time or energy to participate in any of the stuff she and other university students were doing, like joining clubs, teams or going to the parties. Riku wasn’t really into partying anyway, but he admitted that he spent most of his spare time alone. Kairi had every right to be a bit worried about his social life. Maybe she thought he was lonely? Hopefully not, since right now Riku was really content with having Kairi as a friend and focusing on his studies. And going out during nights to help merpeople with human garbage.

Riku sighed. He had to think about this a little bit more before doing any changes in to his routine. Riku pushed the hair that was falling over his eyes back. He should get it cut soon again. Maybe that would make him look a bit less broody.

I am not broody, Riku corrected himself, but today he had a problem to believe himself like he usually did. Maybe Kairi was right. Maybe he was a bit lonely.

Riku snorted out loud.

Yeah, right.

 

                                                                                                                         ⋆

 

Combat boots were not the most comfortable shoes to walk on sand. They were heavy and sunk in the soft sand, but after nearly stepping on to huge piece of sharp glass once while wearing sandals, Riku would not take any risks. He had a first-aid kit with him, but having wounds on his feet while being in contact with sand was not something he wanted to ever happen.

Riku pointed his flashlight downwards so he would see where he was stepping. He had been on this beach couple of times before, but since it was fairly hard to get to, Riku doubted someone would take their time and go there just for illegal fishing or trashing. He had removed one wire trap near the beach couple of weeks ago and cleaned up some small litters, like empty soda bottles and plastic bags, but that was pretty much it. Riku had, however, resolved in to going through all the nearby beaches at least once a week, and he kept journal about what he had done where and when. It was easier to keep track about things that way, since nights tended up to blur together a little bit.

Riku climbed over some taller rocks to get closer to the water. The beach was pretty rugged, and had many little caves along the way, dug by the waves to hard side of the cliff. It was easier to navigate once he was closer to the waterline, and Riku could actually walk without the fear of tripping over something. Riku stopped a couple of feet away from the water, and he whistled. A high note, dipping towards the end.

_Help?_

He waited and listened. Nothing, only waves crashing softly against rocks.

Riku tried again. Still nothing. Well, it wasn’t like every single beach was inhabited by someone, or that someone would even know where he was going next and be there waiting for him.

Riku stood there, staring out towards the now pitch-black horizon. Maybe he should just look around a bit, and then move to the next. It wasn’t like there was usually much to do anyway on this beach. And Kairi’s words still nagged in the back of Riku’s mind, and he didn’t want to worry her anymore by not possibly showing up to the classes next morning either because he was too tired after roaming around the beaches all night.

He should really do that. But for some reason, Riku couldn’t get his feet to move. Some weird, ominous feeling creeped up along his spine and rooted Riku right there. Riku had never thought that the ocean could actually speak to him, but now it felt like the waves were forming words with every splash ripple.

Don’t go, the water seemed to say. Don’t go, there’s something for you to do.

Maybe he was just tired and imagining things, but the feeling of something being wrong wouldn’t leave Riku alone. He pondered for a moment what to do, and when the feeling just got stronger, he decided to follow it.

Riku whistled once more, and waited, listening now very, very closely, for anything really. His hands were shaking for some reason, and Riku gripped his flashlight harder to keep them still.

Then he heard the whistling. Short, high notes, coming one after one after one. Riku had not heard the exact call earlier, but he knew the meaning instantly.

_Help!_

The whistles sounded weird. Like the one who was making them was really struggling to make any noise at all, and that was the last straw for Riku.  He sprung towards the direction the whistles were coming from, trying to keep his breathing down so he could hear if there was anything else. He was close to tripping a couple of times when a rock would stand up from the sand, but maybe with just power of will, Riku kept himself from falling down.

 

Riku got almost to the other end of narrow cape, when he heard violent splashes of water and sounds of obvious struggle. It was coming from one of the small coves along the rocky shoreline, and Riku knew he had to get in to the water to reach it.

It was not that Riku even really cared, but he only thought about his swimming shorts in his backpack after he had jumped into the water and gotten himself wet from almost waist-down. Too late now, and he quickly forgot about his clothes again when he reached the cove.

There was something in the cove. All Riku could see was splashing water as something was struggling under the surface. Riku flashed it with his light, and it was…a dolphin?

Yes, it was. Riku saw a dolphin’s tail kicking and its dorsal fin going up and down and its other arm reaching up. Riku blinked.

No, it was not a dolphin. It was one of _them_.

Riku sprung back in to the action. Even with his flashlight he could not see very well, but it was enough. The mermaid – merman? Riku was not sure – was stuck in something, and Riku was trying to make out what it was. He flashed around with the light.

He first thought it was a net, but while inching himself closer, Riku noticed the small hooks glistening in the light. It was a longline, with many snoods tangling from it. Riku knew they were banned in here all together, since they dolphins and turtles often got caught in them and got injured by the hooks. Trying to remove it without gloves was unsafe and Riku didn’t have ones, but he didn’t have time to worry about it right now.

So have took his backpack, rummaged through it to find his net cutter, threw the pack over to the cliff, and knife in other hand and flashlight in another, he swam closer to the mermaid. It was still struggling, tail kicking rapidly, but Riku could not see it’s arms anymore. It must’ve gotten stuck head first.

Riku dodged the tail, and then reached to touch it with the hand with a flashlight in it. It felt like dolphin’s skin, smooth and kind of rubbery.

 

“Hey, hey, calm down!” Riku hoped it would hear him.

“I’m trying to help you, okay, can you stop kicking?”

 

The tail splashed water on Riku’s face, but then went more still. It was still moving slightly, like trying to keep itself somehow in place, but now Riku could at least get closer without the fear of being hit. Okay, right. There was some of the line and snoods stuck around the tail, and Riku could see scratches there and there. He was so going to report this later.

He got the tail out rather fast, considering that it was pitch dark and he had to cut while swimming and holding the flashlight. The mermaid had gone almost completely still, which made it even easier for him. It only twitched every now and then when Riku moved on to deal with rest of the line.

Riku frowned. Twitching was not a very natural movement to do, and it was even more out of the place compared to the earlier violent struggling. Something was wrong.

Riku took a deep breath and dove.

The line was somewhat anchored to the bottom, and rest of it was wrapped around the bare skin of very, very humanlike and clearly a male’s upper body (a merman, then, not mermaid). It was tangled around the arms, left being more stuck than the right, and the upper line of the had found its way slightly around the neck. Riku saw blood coming out in scratches there and there, but nothing too serious. He should start the cutting from the neck and then move to the arms.

 

As Riku grabbed the line around the neck, he noticed something. Maybe it was the marine biologist in him that saw it, since Riku didn’t think he would have paid attention to it otherwise.

There were no gills.

And then the realisation hit Riku like a full-sized frigate. The merman had a tail of a dolphin, which was a marine mammal, and an upper body of a human, so of course there were no gills. That meant the merman probably had lungs just like Riku, and with the complete stillness and twitching of the tail, it would only mean one thing.

The merman was drowning.

Riku gritted his teeth. He cut the line around the neck carefully, and then he just crabbed it and started cutting the mess with way less precision. He could feel the hooks getting caught in his palms and ripping the skin open, but Riku just gritted his teeth even harder and kept going. He got the head out, then the upper arms, and while some of the line and the snoods were still tangled around the merman, it was now free from the line anchored to the bottom.

Riku grabbed the merman under its arms and swam both of them to the surface.

 

Riku felt like he had been holding his breath for the whole way back to the beach. He had dropped his flashlight while cutting, but thankfully the moon was now high on the sky, so Riku could see where the rocks were even without the light. He stood up immediately when his legs hit the bottom, and he dragged the merman with him to the land.

The merman’s head accidentally fell forwards, and maybe it was because of the movement, for Riku felt it’s upper body jerk hard before it started coughing and spluttering. Riku waited for a moment for the coughing to cease, before he laid the merman down on the ground. It was now breathing heavy, but its eyes were still closed, and it didn’t seem to react when Riku, very gently, brushed its hair from its face.

In the moonlight the merman’s features looked a little bit hazy, but Riku could see that it was indeed a young man, maybe even younger than Riku was, with still a little bit roundness on the cheeks. Small nose and soft chin, and dark hair (maybe brown? Riku couldn’t really tell the exact shade in the poor lighting), even when soaked, was still trying to defy gravity. Riku thought, for some reason, that the merman looked exactly like a person whom all the old ladies in the neighbourhood would love and call cute.

Then the merman’s eyes suddenly snapped open, and Riku found himself staring at the brightest shade of sky blue he had ever seen before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm channeling myself so hard in Riku in this. Why do 8 am classes exist. Who's even awake during them.
> 
> Also I'm staring at Square Enix so hard, where is my girl Kairi. You can't just make a character who's going to have huge impact in the story and then just. leave her out of everything. God.  
> I wanted to write Riku and Kairi having actual close relationship like adults they are, not just this Sora's potential girlfriend and best friend-setting square has going on. Let them be friends too, dammit. 
> 
> Longline fishing is banned at least in the Pacific Coast of the US, but only pelagic ones (ones floating on the surface). In my knowledge, longlines attached to the bottom/demersal longlines are still permitted. Longline fishing has been credited to be 'green' solution in the past, compared to nets (e.g. possession of gillnets is illegal in some states) but it has been calculated that the bycatch of longlines (other fish, dolphins, birds etc.) is 4.5 million every year. (end of public service announcement)
> 
> (can you tell that I'm a natural science student who lives by the ocean can you)
> 
> Also, the second Eurovision semifinal today! My country already got the final (thank god), so I'm just watching to see who else goes there. I haven't even listened to any of the songs beforehand so I can get a first impression by the stage performance. Any fellow Europeans? Who's your favorite this year?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing the last chapter: describe the bathtub. It will make sense.
> 
> I'm honestly surprised that I got this chapter ready in time. It has been around 30 Celsius degrees the whole week and the last weekend, and I'm like 'this is Northern Europe and it's not even the end of May, w h y'. I'm sorry for any grammar mistakes or errors, my brain is completely fried.
> 
>  
> 
> (Warning, this chapter contains description of blood, nothing drastic, but I know it can still irk someone)

Throughout past sixteen years of his life, Riku had more times than often imagined of what meeting with merpeople would be like.

His first encounter had been so sudden and had happened so fast. So fast that Riku’s brain had had way too many blanks to fill in, which had caused him to question if it was even real. Humans loved mermaids as a concept, and trying to navigate through many different kinds of stories, myths and interpretations had made it even more difficult to even guess what would be anywhere near the truth. The only thing Riku had known for sure to be true were the blue, glowing eyes, still showing up regularly in his dreams.

 

Riku had been ready to face pretty much anything. Fishtails, fangs, scales, all that. He had braced himself to see something not very humanlike, so he wouldn’t be taken aback by it.

He had not been prepared to be taken aback of just how _human_ the merpeople would look.

 

But he was. The fact that the merman, laying on the beach in front of him, looked so much like a human being was what made Riku a little startled. His mind had created this huge difference between him and the merpeople, between humans and these other creatures, so he could understand the difference between himself and the humans around him.

The only things that reminded Riku that the young man in front of him was not a human, were the dolphin’s tail instead of legs, and the blue eyes that were too bright to belong to a human being.

 

And right now those blue eyes stared directly at Riku.

 

The eyes were a bit hazy at first, as the merman was slowly regaining its consciousness. Then it blinked, once, twice, and the eyes steadily became more focused with every passing second. Riku held his breath in anticipation.

Then the merman gasped, sounding surprised, and its head snapped up, eyes now completely concentrated on Riku. Riku couldn’t help himself and he flinched and leaned back, his pulse quickening up fast.

He had imagined a meeting with merpeople multiple times before, but everything he had imagined was already shattered, and Riku now didn’t know what he was even supposed to do.

 

The merman didn’t seem to be bothered by Riku’s reaction. It stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open, like it was seeing some kind of a miracle happening.

 

Well, maybe seeing a human from the close proximity was something extraordinary for a merman, Riku thought, when the merman suddenly spoke.

 

“Oh, oh wow, it’s _you_ ”, it said, and Riku could swear he saw its eyes sparkle.

 

Then Riku realised that the merman had actually _spoken_. In clear English, not in whistles and other noises he had heard before while roaming around on the beaches. And then he realised that the merman seemed to recognise him.

 

“Wait, what?” Riku asked, now even more lost with the situation than he had been before. And then he mentally slapped himself for sounding so baffled and blurting out a question like that.

 

Again, the merman didn’t seem to be bothered about his behaviour at all. Its mouth now turned in to a huge smile, and despite the lines still wrapped around its arms, it rose to its elbows.

“It’s you!” it exclaimed.

“You’re the one who always comes to the beaches at night! You always clean up the stuff and you can talk to us!”

 

Oh, right. Now that the merman said it, it made complete sense that it would recognise him. A human who showed up regularly, new their language and helped them out was probably something the merpeople spoke about with each other. Riku figured it also made sense that it knew what he looked like, since apparently there was often someone close by when Riku was cleaning the water around the beaches.

Riku took a deep breath. Just calm down and concentrate and don’t say or do anything stupid, he told himself. Just calm down and do…whatever you need to do.

“It’s me”, he answered.

“You’re right. I, uh, I’m Riku.”

 

He didn’t know what else to say, really. The merman’s smile grew, like it had heard something wonderful.

“Riku”, it repeated.

“I’m Sora!”

 

Sora. It was… a very normal name.

Riku fought back the urge to shake his head. He just… he had just imagined that the merpeople would have very different names from human ones. He had not thought that they would literally have human names.

Sora seemed to try and straighten his arms to get up closer, but then his (it’s _he_ , not _it_ ) smile fell and was replaced with grimace, and a very high and pained whine escaped from his throat. That was the moment Riku snapped back in to his complete senses from the confused state he had slipped in to.

 

“Wait, wait, wait, don’t move”, he said hastily and moved closer to Sora.

“There’s still line’s around you, and probably hooks too, don’t move so they don’t cut deeper.”

 

The flashlight would have been a big help right now, since even though Riku’s eyes had now adjusted to see a little bit better in the pale moonlight, he did not see well enough to tell where the lines and hooks were. He needed better light, and he also needed better equipment to actually remove them. And something to patch up the scratches, too. He had first aid kit in his backpack, where had he thrown it…

Without thinking, Riku had grabbed Sora’s arms, and he realised that only when he felt Sora flinch from the touch.

 

“Shit, I’m sorry”, he quickly let go.

“I shouldn’t be touching you without permission.”

 

Despite clearly being in some pain, Sora looked at him like Riku had said something weird.

“You have already touched me many times tonight”, he pointed out.

 

“Yes, but I was trying to help you there”, Riku reasoned.

 

“Aren’t you trying to help me now, too?” Sora asked, sounding like Riku was being completely ridiculous, and to be honest, Riku felt that way, too.

“You just pressed in something there, that’s all.”

 

“Right”, Riku breathed.

“Sorry, I’m just…never mind, just don’t move, I have to find my backpack, I have first aid kit in there.”

 

When Sora didn’t object, Riku rose to his feet, and hurried to the direction of the cove he had found Sora. He really didn’t have stuff with him suitable for treating a wounded merman with him, either, but he had to come up with something. He couldn’t just leave Sora alone with bleeding scratches and hooks pressing in to his skin.

Riku breathed out air, long and slightly irritated. This was something he had prepared himself for so long, and now when it actually happened, he realised he was doing a very shitty job.

It really seemed like the only difference that truly existed was between his imagination and reality.

 

                                                                                                                   ⋆

 

It took Riku almost embarrassingly long time to find his backpack. Sora was, thank god, still there when Riku got back, trying to pick something out of his hair. Riku had feared that the merman would just flee back to the ocean once Riku had turned his back to him, but instead Sora seemed to be actually waiting for him. His eyes turned back to Riku when he got closer, and a smile appeared again.

 

“You found it?” how did he sound light despite being hurt? Riku wouldn’t blame Sora for tearing up or whining, but there he was, a big smile plastered on his face.

 

“Sorry I took so long”, Riku apologised as an answer. He had dropped his net cutter somewhere, too, but he was sure he had a pocket knife with him as well. He should at least try and get the hooks and lines off, even with just the moon giving him light.

“Can you give your arm to me? I’ll see what I can do to it.”

 

Very obediently, Sora stretched his right arm, and Riku, squinting his eyes, picked a hook stuck in Sora’s bicep between his fingers.

“Sorry if it hurts”, he said. Sora just smiled and nodded, and Riku knew it was supposed to be reassuring, but it didn’t stop him from feeling bad when he heard Sora suck in a very sharp breath between his teeth when Riku twisted the hook to get it out. It was stuck pretty deep, and left an angry, bleeding stab in the muscle.

 

“It’s okay”, Sora said, still smiling, and Riku clenched his jaw.

This was going to be a long night.

 

 

 

“I think that was the last one”, Riku said.

“Maybe.”

 

He eyed Sora’s back again, where he had just removed three hooks, to make sure there were no surprises to find later. He did not want Sora to think everything was okay, when in reality there would still be a sharp object inside his flesh, cutting its way deeper over the passing time.  For his relief, Riku could only see freely tangling lines he had cut while searching for hooks. For not to his relief, Riku could also see dark streaks of blood running down Sora’s back, and Riku knew that Sora’s arms, chest and tail looked the same. And that was the biggest problem now.

 

Sora turned his head, so he could look at Riku over his shoulder.

“Really? Thank you”, he flashed Riku a grin.

 

“Don’t be too quick to thank me, you’re still hurt”, Riku reminded him.

“I can patch some of these up, but…”

 

But being hurt and bleeding in the ocean was not a good thing. Even if sharks were in reality not so hostile towards humans, they were still predators driven by their instincts, and Riku was sure that they would find wounded merman smelling like blood very tempting. And Riku could already see that some of the cuts were big enough to need actually some time to heal properly, and they could get infected without proper care and…

Riku tried to calm his thoughts. He had always been the one who thought and worried too much and jumped too quickly in to worst-case scenarios. Getting anxious right now wouldn’t bring forth anything good.

 

Sora tilted his head to the side.

“But?” he asked. Riku sighed.

 

“It’s not really safe for you to go back to the ocean”, Riku explained.

“You’ll attract predators, and some of these need to actually heal.”

 

Sora hummed quietly and was silent for a short moment.

“Okay”, he said then.

“Then I’ll just go with you.”

 

Now it was Riku’s turn to be silent for a moment.

“What?” he blurted, and then mentally slapped himself again.

 

“If I can’t go back to the ocean, I’ll just have to go with you, don’t I?” Sora looked at him, eyes shining bright.

 

Riku felt his jaw drop, and he quickly closed his mouth again.

“You…” he searched for words.

“You can’t just decide to go with people you don’t know!”

 

“Why not?” Sora asked, blinking confusedly.

 

“Because. Because what if they are not nice?” Riku reasoned.

“Not all humans are nice, even if they first seem to be.”

 

Honestly, even when living in the island with a same number of population as a high-rise building, Riku’s dad had taught him that he should not go with people he didn’t know, not even if they seemed to be nice at first. Didn’t merpeople teach that to their children? Apparently not, if Sora was this trusting.  

Riku couldn’t believe that he was giving a talk about stranger danger to a merman.

 

“But you are nice, aren’t you?” Sora asked, again sounding like Riku was the one being completely ridiculous.

“And I’m pretty sure you are the only one around here who even knows we exist, so I don’t know where else I should go.”

 

“Yes, but…” but what was he supposed to do with a merman? Take him home with him? Riku’s apartment wasn’t exactly suitable for housing merpeople, hell, it was barely suitable for housing Riku himself. He couldn’t just pick Sora up and stuck him in to the bathtub!

Not that the bathtub wouldn’t be too small for Sora to fit in there. Sora wasn’t exactly a big merman, and he wouldn’t have been a very big human either. His tail wasn’t the size of a full-grown dolphin (Riku had met so much people who hadn’t realised how big adult dolphins actually were, since they had only seen them in pictures or in dolphinariums), and his human body was smaller and shorter than Riku’s torso, and Riku estimated that if Sora had legs, he would be at least a head shorter than Riku was. Was it just Sora, of were merpeople usually that size?

 

“Riku?” Sora called, and Riku realised that he had probably fallen silent for a bit too long.

 

“I mean, don’t you have anyone to look after you?” Riku asked.

“Like other merpeople?”

 

With someone almost constantly being around when Riku was on his nightly patrols, he had thought that the waters near the city would be inhabited pretty densely. So he was surprised when Sora shook his head.

 

“Not really”, Sora said.

“We don’t usually stay at one place, we more like visit certain places more than the others. I’m a bit oddball in that sense.”

 

“So you just stay here?” Riku asked.

“Where’s your family?”

 

Riku realised too late that it might’ve been a sensitive question, but Sora just shrugged.

“Don’t know. Don’t worry, I do have friends to keep me company! They’re just not here right now”, Sora said, and smile again in a way that was supposed to be reassuring. He was really smiling a bit too much for Riku’s liking, considering the situation.

 

“Do you know when they’ll be back?” Sora shook his head to that, and Riku bit back a sigh.

…he really didn’t have a choice, did he?

 

“I’ll wrap these up for now”, he said.

“And then we have to go, so no one else sees you.”

 

“Does that mean I’ll go with you?” Sora asked, smile shining now like a rising sun.

 

“Yes. Now hold still, we don’t have the whole night”, Riku ordered, and Sora obeyed by going so still it was almost funny.

 

Almost. I would have been, if Riku hadn’t been too anxious for even thinking about smiling.

 

                                                                                                                ⋆

 

Upon reaching his apartment, Riku had decided that he deserved an Olympic medal. All of them, to be honest.

 

Riku had no idea how it had even worked. When he had treated Sora’s wounds in the beach, he had realised that he honestly did not have any other option than to pick Sora up. He didn’t own a car (he had a licence, but he had put all of his savings in to his tuition fees and had not even thought about buying a car), and he didn’t know anyone who had well enough. And it wasn’t like he had anyone else to call than Kairi, anyway.

 

Carrying Sora wasn’t the most difficult part. Despite the dolphin tail, he wasn’t that heavy. If anything, the tail just made it much harder to have a good grip, since there wasn’t anything resembling knee-joints in there. But Riku managed. During the first week of practical studies, Riku had very fast become the one who teachers asked to lift heavy stuff and carry things for them and all that. So one half dolphin man? No problem.

No, the hardest part on the whole thing was to get Sora in his apartment without anyone seeing them. Carrying another human being? Nothing special to see there. Carrying half dolphin man? Now that was a very different story. Sora had pointed out that Riku was probably the only one around who even knew merpeople existed (Riku had not told him that Kairi knew, too), and Riku found himself being very adamant for staying as the only person who knew about Sora and his kind. He had not lied about how not all humans were nice. They couldn’t even be respectful towards each other, so Riku doubted that throwing merpeople in to the mix would bring out anything good.

 

Sora, on the contrary, didn’t seem to be worried about the situation at all, even though in Riku’s opinion, he should’ve been the one of them to be anxious. He was dressed in Riku’s university hoodie Riku had packed tonight as a spare clothing, had his other arm lightly wrapped around Riku’s neck for support, and overall, he looked really comfortable being carried. He just glanced around, eyes big, and occasionally pointed something out, and Riku tried to keep his voice steady while explaining what a garden fountain was.

 

Thankfully it was in the middle of the week, so there were no late party-goers roaming around the streets, and the apartment complex was quiet and dark. Riku optioned for a few seconds between whether to take elevator or the stairs, before deciding on running up. The elevator would be faster, but Riku didn’t want to risk being stuck in there with Sora in his arms while someone else could come in at any point.

Sora, by some miracle, kept quiet without Riku having to tell him. Maybe he sensed Riku’s nervousness, which had only grown from the first second they stepped inside the building. He just watched, curious, as they climbed up the stairs to the third floor and stopped in front of the door to Riku’s apartment.

 

And now Riku was in front of another problem.

 

“ _Fuck_ ”, he cursed under his breath. Sora’s eyes moved to look at his face.

 

“Language”, he said and giggled, softly, and Riku kind of wanted to giggle too. But he didn’t, and Sora tilted his head, questioning.

“What now?”

 

“I can’t open the door”, Riku explained.

“My keys are in my backpack, and the door’s heavy.”

 

He would have to put Sora down, get his keys and pick him back up, and oh boy did even thinking about that make Riku exhausted.

Sora looked at him like he was being ridiculous again.

 

“Oh, is that it?” he asked.

“Turn around.”

 

Riku raised his eyebrows.

“What do you mean ‘turn around’?” he asked. He was honestly so tired right now, the long night behind him and adrenaline slowly wearing down.

 

“Like, turn around so your face is in that direction”, Sora pointed over Riku’s shoulder. Riku didn’t know why he complied.

Sora took a look at the doorknob, and Riku could see his brows crunching in concentration. He was just about to ask Sora what his was planning, when Sora kicked his tail, so hard that Riku almost stumbled over because of the sudden motion. The flukes made contact with the door, and Riku heard a sharp crack as the door flied open and then slammed against the wall.

The sound echoed through the empty hallway, and Riku’s breath hitched in his throat. For a long, dreadful moment, Riku waited for his neighbours to come out to see what was going on.

For his luck, it seemed that people slept more tightly during small hours, because all the doors stayed closed. Riku relaxed, just enough to realise what had just happened.

 

“Did you just break my door?” he hissed.

 

“Maybe?” Sora said, trying to smile that reassuring smile again, but Riku was not having it this time. Sora’s smile faltered under Riku’s glare.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to break it”, he said, and Riku was about to interrogate him about what he had thought would happen, but, again, he was way, way too tired for that.

 

“I’m seriously going to dump you back to the ocean immediately when I can”, Riku gnarled. Why had he thought that this was a good idea in the first place?

 

_You know exactly why_ , a very small part of his brain told him, but Riku actively decided to ignore it. He stepped inside and pushed the door with his foot. The door still closed, thank god, but Riku could see that the lock was definitely busted. He also actively decided to ignore the other part of his brain that had started to calculate the cost of replacing the lock.

Sora had forgotten the lock right away when they had stepped inside. His eyes darted all around the small apartment, and if the timing had been anything else and not after three o’clock in the morning, Riku would have been embarrassed about all the clothes and other stuff laying around.

But right now his arms were aching, and now that they were inside his apartment, safe from peering eyes, he felt completely out of breath. Sora might’ve been asking him about something, but Riku brushed him aside, and without saying anything he carried him to the bathroom.

 

Fitting them both through the door was a little bit of a challenge (Riku knocked his elbow to the doorframe and Sora yelped when the back of his head collided briefly with the cabinet on the wall), but it was the last obstacle in the whole ordeal, so Riku didn’t complain. His arms shook when they were freed from their task after Riku had put Sora down in the bathtub.

He had been right about Sora fitting in there. The flukes didn’t quite fit in, but otherwise it didn’t look too cramped. Sora looked at him with a slightly bemused expression as Riku turned faucet on.

 

“So the tail’s skin doesn’t dry out”, Riku explained.

“It’s already in scratches.”

 

The one’s in tail didn’t look too bad, now that Riku saw them in proper lightning. But he was still worried about the one’s in Sora’s upper body, especially when Sora took the hoodie off and Riku saw couple of them still bleeding.

Sora didn’t say anything when Riku rewrapped his arm and put a new patch on the one scratch on his neck, but when Riku started going over rest of the cuts, he grabbed Riku’s wrist.

 

“It’s okay”, he said and smiled. He really smiled too much.

 

Riku rubbed his eyes with his free hand.

“It’s really not”, he said.

 

“It is”, Sora was still smiling, but there was a change in his tone. Like he was insisting.

“I’m okay. You have already done so much, it’s going to be fine. You look like you’re going to faint.”

 

“I’m fine, just tired”, Riku gently wrestled his hand out of Sora’s grip.

“You’re the one here who got stuck in fishing line and almost drowned, you shouldn’t be this happy.”

“And you’re the one who got me out of there and is currently lending his bathtub for me”, Sora grinned, but the expression was soft.

“Go to sleep, you deserve it.”

 

Riku didn’t bother to bit back the sigh this time.

“You are speaking really nicely to a person you don’t know”, he mumbled. Sora laughed, and yet again, he sounded like Riku was being ridiculous. It was seriously becoming a common theme.

 

“You were nice to me first”, Sora pointed out. He lifted his hand, and his fingers brushed Riku’s too long bangs.

“The ocean answers in the same way one speaks at it, you know that?”

 

Riku didn’t know what to say to that. Sora was right, though, as he did kind of feel like he was going to faint.

“I guess”, he said.

“Do you, like, need something?”

 

Sora rolled his eyes, but he didn’t look annoyed.

“A pillow would be nice”, he answered.

 

Riku stared at his ceiling.

Sora was in the bathtub, full of pleasantly cool water, with a pillow propped up against the wall. Riku had just taken off his combat boots and had then collapsed on to the bed with rest of his clothes on, still not completely dry and reeking like seaweed. His mind wavered, tired brains trying to get a grasp of what had happened.

 

He had actually met a merman today. There was a merman in his bathroom.

He had seriously taken a merman home and stuck him in to his bathtub.

 

Riku groaned, and threw an arm over his face.

 

“What the fuck am I doing?” he asked himself, before falling in a dream, in which people with dolphin tails bathed in bathtubs underwater and had pillows that didn’t get wet.

 

                                                                                                                    ⋆

 

Riku woke up morning feeling like he hadn’t slept at all. His arms were sore, and he felt disgustingly sticky and way too warm.

Riku sat up, slowly, and pushed his hair back from his face. It stuck to his forehead like a bunch of damp strings and made him feel even more gross. He should really cut his hair. Riku kept it short from the back, because having long hair in humid climate would’ve been an absolute suicide. But his bangs always grew too fast and glued themselves to his skin.

 

He should ask Kairi to cut them. It would be cheaper. Riku needed to save money, especially now that his door was broken and everything and he needed to fix it.

 

Then Riku remembered.

 

He had met a merman. A merman named Sora. A merman named Sora had broken his door and was now in Riku’s bathtub.

 

Riku shot up from his bed, almost tripping over his boots, laying on the floor next to his bed. He rushed out of his bedroom.

He had to make sure. He had to make sure that he hadn’t just had the most vivid and realistic dream ever and there really was a merman in his bathtub.

The bathroom door was open, and breathing harshly, Riku looked inside.

 

No, it hadn’t been just a dream.

Sora was still sleeping, pillow now against the side of the bathtub, so from where Riku was standing, he could only really see the wild brown hair (chestnut brown, to be exact, since Riku could now see the colours correctly in the sunlight). Other arm was under his head, keeping the pillow in it’s place, while the other arm, the one with bandages wrapped around the bicep, was hanging out of the tub, knuckles resting on the white tile floor. The flukes of the tail still poked out of the tub (tail, not legs, Sora was definitely a merman and not a dream), but Sora seemed to be comfortable, judging from the way he hadn’t stirred at all despite Riku making noises.

 

Despite it seeming like Sora was a heavy sleeper, Riku felt like he had to almost sneak his way to the bathtub. The cuts didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore, which was a relief, but Riku could tell that the one on Sora’s neck would probably leave a pretty prominent scar. The other scratches looked like they would fade away, and if they scarred, they would be just thin lines.

 

Now that Riku had the sunlight with him, he could see that Sora already had a bunch of those thin, white scars across his skin. Nothing too major, thankfully, but for Riku it seemed like Sora had a habit of bumping himself in to stuff that left marks on him.

Riku glanced at Sora’s face, or at the half of it that wasn’t smushed to the pillow. He could now see his facial features more clearly, too. Sora was clearly around the same age as Riku was, but he still had this softness that Riku had already lost years ago. With the big blue eyes (now closed, Sora had really long eyelashes) and small nose and curved cheeks, Riku pictured that Sora would be a master of getting away from trouble with a big smile and few blinks.

 

Ah, well, to think of it, he had tried that on Riku last night, when he had broken the door. Riku sighed through his nose.

 

He should probably wake Sora up. His neck would be cramped if he stayed at that position for too long. But he didn’t. Instead of waking Sora, Riku slowly backed out from the bathroom, and went back to his bedroom to get a towel and a change of clothes.

He couldn’t use the shower now that Sora was in the tub, so he would have to go downstairs to the laundry room. He could at least wash his hair and change from his saltwater-smelling clothes to clean ones.

Passing through the kitchen, Riku checked the time from the microwave’s clock. 10.13 in the morning.

Well, there went Mr. Avelino’s topography class. Again.

 

By the time Riku got back from the laundry room, feeling a little bit fresher and more awake (though that was not much) Sora was still sleeping. And Riku still didn’t wake him up. Both of them had had a long night, and if Riku was tired, he figured that Sora would be exhausted. Smiling was not going to change that fact (and Sora kind of deserved to have a cramped neck, if you asked Riku. Having a cramped neck would not cost money like replacing a lock did).

 

He should go to school. Even if Mr. Avelino did not demand attendance, the other teachers did, and Riku couldn’t really risk his grades. And Riku really wanted to talk to Kairi, in addition of cutting his hair.

Although it had now became clear that Sora was a not going to wake up by Riku making noise, Riku still tip-toed around the apartment to gather his stuff for school. He had only two classes to attend today, so he thankfully wouldn’t be away for long.

There was still the possibility that Sora would wake up while Riku was away. Very quietly he rummaged through the kitchen cabinets and then grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and made his way back to the bathroom.

 

He didn’t have much in the house, but Riku placed a couple of snack bars on the sink, alongside with a note he wrote.

_At school. I’ll be back in couple of hours. Change the water if it becomes too warm. And eat._

_-Riku_

 

Feeling a little bit like a mother giving instructions to a child, Riku sneaked out of the apartment again. He closed the door as good as he could, so no one would see the broken lock while passing. Riku didn’t have anything too valuable, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be burgled. Especially with a merman inside his apartment.

 

His stomach growled upon reaching the elevator, and Riku realised that he hadn’t eaten anything himself. Riku pursed his lips. Oh, well, he would just grab something on his way to university.

For some reason, the feeling of being hypocritical nagged inside his head. First you command Sora to eat, and then don’t eat yourself?

 

“Shut up”, Riku mumbled to his brain. It was not like Sora was going to know, since Riku would not be telling him.

 

Halfway through the way to the university, takeaway coffee in hand, Riku realised also that he had no idea if Sora could even read. Did the merpeople even have schools?

 

If he doesn’t understand to eat without someone telling him, then he’s an idiot, Riku thought, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that taking care of a merman was going to just get more and more challenging.

 

 

 

He didn’t share other classes than Mr. Avelino’s topography class with Kairi that day, so Riku had to actually hunt her down, since he didn’t have a phone (that was really going to be a problem. Why was everything in Riku’s life a problem now? Maybe it had something to do with a lack of sleep. He needed more coffee). He tried to recall if Kairi had her environmental engineering law class or economic geography class first, and he ended up running between three stories before finding the right classroom.

Kairi was easy to spot thanks to her burgundy-red hair and bright clothes. She turned around fast when Riku called for her, and looked rather relieved seeing him jogging towards her.

 

“Riku!” she sprinted towards him to meet him halfway.

“There you are! You promised you would show up in the next class, did you forget that already?”

 

“I said I would show up to next Mrs. Paoa’s class”, Riku told her.

“I didn’t promise anything about topography, don’t put words in my mouth.”

 

Kairi huffed, but didn’t say anything. She then took a rather long look at Riku, eyes moving from his face to his feet and back up.

“You look awful”, she said.

 

“Thanks, Kairi, you look really beautiful today too.”

 

“No, I mean it! Have you even slept?” Kairi took a step closer and grabbed Riku by his forearms.

“Your eyebags could fit a whale in them and oh my god, what are _these?_ ”

 

Kairi’s hands moved to turn Riku’s palms up.

“It’s nothing, don’t worry”, Riku said.

“I got fishing hooks scraping them, it’s really nothing.”

 

He had put band-aids on a couple bigger scratches, but he hadn’t bothered with the smaller ones that scattered across his palms and fingers. Kairi stared at them, and then looked at Riku’s face, and Riku saw that she was clearly not convinced by his words. Sora would’ve probably been much, much better at this.

 

“Kairi”, Riku said when Kairi opened her mouth, interrupting whatever she was going to say.

“I’m going to explain this, but not here. You know what this is about.”

 

Kairi’s expression shifted, and Riku knew she understood.

“You’ll tell me if something has happened, right?” Kairi asked, looking now a little pleading.

 

“Of course”, Riku answered.

“Everything is fine, really. I just…I had a very long night, okay?”

 

Kairi took a deep breath.

“Okay”, she said.

“Because I meant what I said yesterday.”

 

“I know”, Riku smiled at her, though he was pretty sure that it was a pretty bad smile. But it got Kairi to smile back at him, so Riku decided it was good enough.

 

“I hope you’re not lying to me, because dad called me this morning”, Kairi said then.

“Grandma is sick, and they decided to move her in to my parent’s house, and they need my help with the moving. I’m going to be away for couple of days, and I really don’t want to leave if you are in any kind of problem.”

 

Riku was sure that Sora was actually some kind of problem, but he kept his mouth shut.

“Just focus on your family”, he told her. Kairi rolled her eyes.

 

“You are my family too, silly”, she said and punched him gently on the chest. She then looked at the clock on the hallway wall.

 

“I got to go now, I’ve got a paper to return”, she said.

“Take care of yourself.”

 

“Sure, sure”, Riku hummed.

“Oh, Kai, just a minute. Can I borrow your phone?”

 

He still needed to get the door fixed.

 

                                                                                                                                   ⋆

 

When Riku got back home little bit after two in the afternoon, he could tell right away as he stepped inside that Sora was awake. Good, so he hadn’t slept the whole day.

 

“I’m back”, he called while taking his shoes off, and the splashing of the water ceased for a couple of seconds. Then it sounded like a lot of water just got splashed all over the bathroom floor, and Riku flinched.

 

“Riku!” Sora’s very exited voice shouted. Riku put the chain lock in place (the lock was going to be fixed tomorrow morning, so it had to do until then) and dropped his school back on the couch before making his way to the bathroom.

 

Sora was hanging partially out from the bathtub, tail very awkwardly pressed against the wall behind the tub. The floor was, as Riku had suspected, covered in water, but at least Sora had placed the pillow in the sink to prevent it from getting wet as well. The note Riku had written, as well as the wrapping papers from the snack bars were in the sink too.

 

“So you noticed the note?” Riku asked. Obviously, but Riku wanted to know if Sora had understood what had been written in it.

 

“Yep!” Sora grinned.

“Thanks for the food. How was the school?”

 

Okay, that confirmed to Riku that Sora could read.

“It was okay”, he answered, and he was going to ask Sora where he had learned to read, but Sora was faster than Riku.

 

“What school are you in?” Sora asked, looking at Riku curiously, and Riku put his own question to hold.

 

“University”, Riku answered.

 

“What do you study? I bet it’s got something to do with the ocean, since you’re out almost every night”, Sora looked pleased with his explanation.

 

“Marine biology, so you’re right”, Riku answered. He took his socks off, so he could actually step in to the bathroom.

“I’m going to take a look at the cuts.”

 

“They’re not hurting”, Sora said, and smiled widely. Riku could see it was the reassuring smile again.

 

“Don’t try me”, he said, and kneeled down so he was at eye-level with Sora. Sora didn’t stop smiling, but the tone of the expression shifted, and to Riku, he now tried to look totally innocents and unaware of the meaning of Riku’s words.

 

“I’m not trying anything”, Sora said.

“But okay, you can look at them if you want to.”

 

“Thank you”, Riku said.

“I have to know when they are healed enough, so I can throw you back to the ocean.”

 

Sora stuck his tongue out.

“Mean”, he huffed.

“Are you still angry about the door?”

 

“Take a guess”, Riku said, unwrapping the bandage around Sora’s arm.

 

To be honest, he wasn’t really angry. Maybe a bit irritated, yes, but Riku just couldn’t find it in him to be actually angry about it. Maybe it was from the lack of sleep, again.

 

“I said I’m sorry”, Sora said, pouting slightly.

“Can I help you with it?”

 

“Not unless you know how to repair locks or if you have money to pay for someone else to do it”, Riku answered.

“And I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you have neither of them.”

 

Sora puffed his cheeks, and then yelped when Riku’s fingers brushed over the cut. Riku cocked his left eyebrow up.

 

“What did you say? It doesn’t hurt?”

 

“Shut up.”

 

Riku huffed a short laugh. The cut was still pretty nasty looking, but at least it seemed not to be infected and was not bleeding that much anymore. It was probably going to leave a scar like the one in the neck, though.

Sora kept quiet while Riku checked the rest of the cuts, but he smiled brightly at Riku every time Riku even glanced at his face. Riku wanted to call him out of it, but it had seemed that trying to argue with Sora was pointless, so he didn’t say anything. Not even when Sora let out a very, very small and quiet whine when Riku cleaned the cut on his neck, but still smiled when he noticed Riku’s eyes moving ever slightly to look at him.

 

“You’ll live”, Riku said after placing the last new patch on place. Sora let out a long breath.

 

“Thank you, doctor”, he said, grinning softly. Riku liked that smile more. At least it didn’t feel like it was partially forced.

“How can I ever repay your kindness?”

 

“By not getting stuck to longlines again and leaving my door alone”, Riku answered. Sora pouted at him again, reminding Riku a little bit of a toddler.

 

“Not my fault that it was there”, Sora muttered.

“It had never been there before.”

 

“Yeah, okay, the getting stuck part was not your fault. The door is another story”, Riku said.

“But why were you there in the first place?”

 

For a split second, Sora looked like he had been caught up in something, but that expression disappeared before Riku could really notice it.

 

“No one really goes there”, Sora explained.

“So it gives me space? I can be there without anyone seeing me?”

 

The explanation was reasonable, but Riku couldn’t understand why Sora sounded like he was questioning his own words. Sora continued speaking before Riku get a chance to ask him about it.

 

“Why do _you_ go out at nights? Where did you learn the whistles?” he asked. Riku rubbed his neck.

 

“It’s a bit long story”, he said.

 

“I don’t mind.”

 

So Riku told him, about his dad and his mother, about the storm and how he almost drowned, but was saved at the last minute. How they moved away from the islands and how Riku almost stopped believing in what he had seen.

It was surprisingly easy to talk.

 

_It’s because you wanted connection,_ his brain told him. _That’s why you did this in the first place, even though it was a terrible idea._

 

Maybe. Or at least, Riku somehow felt that Sora would understand him in some way or another, as he was not a human and unaware of the existence of others than his own kind.

And Sora listened to him, blue eyes fixated on Riku’s face as he talked, and he didn’t say anything until Riku stopped talking.

 

“I can teach you the rest of the whistles, if you want to”, he offered, after a few seconds of silence.

“It’s a start, at least.”

 

And he smiled at Riku like a sun, and Riku completely forgot the door for a moment.

“Sure”, he said.

“I would like to.”

 

Riku thanked the buildings constructor for the fact the walls weren’t too thin. His neighbours would’ve thought he had lost his mind if they’d hear the whistling going on for hours.

 

                                                                                                                  ⋆

 

Riku woke up next morning with his head pressed against the side of the bathtub. He lifted his head and blinked groggily, trying to identify the noise that had woken him up.

 

It was knocks from the door. Riku yawned and stretched his arms and neck (dear lord, why had he done this to himself?) before standing up.

 

Sora was still sleeping, not letting the knocks bother him. He didn’t have his pillow, it was still in the sink, and this time Riku was sure that his neck was going to be absolutely jammed. Rubbing his face Riku went to open the door.

It was the repairer, of course. Riku let him in and sat down on to the couch, watching absentmindedly the lock being fixed.

 

Sora was pretty easy to be around with. During yesterday, Riku had realised that Sora really was full of smiles and encouraging words, not just when he seemed to be masking something up. He didn’t seem to mind Riku being a man of lot less words and a lot fewer smiles and just kept going with his bright face. Riku seriously envied that kind of people.

 

It wasn’t like Riku had ever wanted a lot of friends, but he had been lonely when growing up. Part of it was because he never felt that other people understood him, but Riku had to admit that the rest of it was because of him not being good with others. It didn’t matter that Riku was friendly and wasn’t shy, but getting friends while not throwing himself fully out there had been almost impossible as a teenager. Riku had tried putting on an act when he had been on eight grade, but it had been too tiring to continue for long.

 

Riku knew that if Sora had been in his class during junior high, he would’ve been everyone’s friend. Sora would’ve been all easy smiles and easy laughs, and Riku wondered if Sora would’ve been Riku’s friend as well.

 

He had almost fallen asleep again while thinking, and when the repairer suddenly announced that he was ready, Riku almost jumped up from the couch. The repairer left him a bill and a new key and disappeared through the door almost without Riku even noticing.

 

Riku brew himself a cup of coffee, and then packed his school pack. He grimaced a little to all undone work, but he pushed it out of his mind. Deadlines were not near yet, he could catch up yesterdays work in no time.

Sora didn’t wake up when Riku very carefully nudged the pillow under his head. Another thing Riku envied, he would pay for that deep of sleep. Riku left him a new note and couple of snack bars again next to it. Last nights plates were still on the bathroom floor, and Riku carried them back to kitchen on his way out. He would do the dishes later.

 

Despite the neck pain, Riku felt better rested than he had during the whole week. He was able to actually pay attention to the class (even if software’s still made his head hurt a little) and he actually wrote down decent notes (though Riku argued that he always wrote decent notes, but Kairi called his handwriting beyond horrible). He had promised Kairi that he would get her notes too from their shared classes, so he put extra work in his letters. To Riku they looked like comic sans written by hand, but at least Kairi would be satisfied.

 

The only thing that hindered his concentration was Sora. Riku had only had a very short day at school yesterday, but today was longer. What if Sora woke up early and became bored? Being stuck in a bathtub sounded awful even to Riku, now that he actually thought about it, and he was sure that it was even more horrible for Sora.

 

Maybe he could come up with something else. Water resistant bandages? Were those even a thing? Would Sora be okay if he just stayed near the beaches? What if something happened and Riku wasn’t there to keep an eye on him?

 

_Stop_ , Riku ordered himself. _Sora is not a baby nor an invalid, he should be fine without you help. He’s been fine this whole time, two days does not make you even friends or anything. He’s just nice to you because you helped him and because he probably just is like that, that’s all._

 

Riku rested his forehead to his hand and focused again on the teacher talking about ecosystems around hydrothermal vents.

 

 

Riku wanted to get back home as fast as he could, but he really needed to stop for groceries on his way. He bought make-up removing wipes too, in case if he didn’t get to properly shower today either. Riku knew they weren’t exactly meant for that purpose, but at least they would reduce the sweat on his skin and smell nice.

 

The door was much easier to open with the new lock. It was still pretty heavy, but instead of pushing it with his entire weight, it now needed just a one sharp nudge.

 

Riku was just about to announce that he was back, when he realised that the TV was on. Riku frowned. He had not even touched it this morning, so what…

 

Riku stepped inside and hurried to his little living room area right next to the kitchen.

 

Sora was sitting on the couch, watching the TV, with a towel wrapped around his waist. He turned to look at Riku when he heard him stepping in to the room.

 

“Hi”, Sora said and smiled, and put his feet down from the coffee table.

 

Riku just stared. His fingers went slack, and the shopping bag fell on to the floor, spilling out the groceries.

 

“What the fuck”, Riku said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing this, a couple of times I stopped and thought that 'what if Sora is out of character or smthng' but then I remembered that he makes friends with absolutely anything with a pulse and has no sense in regards of his own safety. I mean Sora, you are precious, but someone really needs to give you the talk about stranger danger.
> 
> Before I started writing this, I was choosing between long-haired Riku and kh3 short-haired Riku, but then I realised that he would be absolutely nuts to have long hair, like dear people with long hair, aren't you hot? I'm boiling despite mine being like only few centimeters.
> 
> (Now it's just gonna get worse for Riku. Or better. At least he can use the shower).
> 
> Also, come say hi to me in tumblr! I'm Varpusvaras in there too.


	4. Chapter 4

Riku stared.

The groceries were on the floor, can of pineapples rolling away before hitting the leg of the coffee table.

Maybe he was dreaming. Maybe he had been feeling more rested today because he wasn’t actually even awake but instead still sleeping. Maybe he was having an aneurysm and he’s seeing things because of it. Riku was not sure if having an aneurysm even caused hallucinations, but something was undoubtedly squeezing his brains blood vessels tight and making it hard for him to think.

“What the fuck”, he said again.

 

“Language”, Sora said, and laughed shortly. Riku didn’t even hear it.

 

“What are those?” Riku asked. Sora blinked, and followed his gaze, which was directed right at his bare legs, coming under the towel around him. He laughed again.

 

“Legs?” Sora lifted his eyes back to Riku, and tilted his head.

“Shouldn’t you know what they are? You have them.”

 

“No, _what are those_ ”, Riku’s voice raised towards the end.

“Where did, what did you do, where did they _come from?”_

 

Nothing was making sense. When Riku had left for school in the morning, Sora had been sleeping in the bathtub, with his dolphin tail sticking out from the water. Him to be now sitting on the couch with pair of human legs was only possible if Riku was imagining it.

 

Sora glanced at his legs again.

“I got bored”, he answered nonchalantly, like Riku was freaking out over nothing at all.

“And I was feeling up to it, so I decided to get out. I’m very thankful for you for lending the tub for me, really, but it got uncomfortable. It’s still a good bathtub though.”

 

Riku opened his mouth, and then closed it. He opened it again, but no words came out, so he closed it again and took few very deep breaths before trying again.

Just calm down, he told himself. Just calm down and stay calm, no matter what this is going to be. You are not crazy. What you are is probably still sleep-deprived and in a need of more caffeine.

Kairi had been right. His nightly patrols were taking toll on him.

 

“So, you can just grow yourself a pair of legs?” he asked, sounding way more accusatory than he actually wanted to. But he was potentially losing it or having some kind of sudden attack, so he was bound to be a little irritated.

“Doing that didn’t come in to your mind when I had to fucking carry you all the way in here with your impractical ass of a tail?”

 

“Hey, I wasn’t feeling well back then!” Sora pouted, brows coming together and nose crunching.

“Have you ever tried to grow yourself pair of legs? It’s not easy!”

 

Riku snapped his mouth shut, as he had opened it again to snap something annoyed.

“So you finally admit that you are injured and not okay?” he asked instead. That got Sora silent, and he stopped pouting. He bowed his head a bit, seeming a little ashamed.

 

“I didn’t want to make you even more nervous”, he said.

“No offence, but you seemed to be very stressed already back then.”

 

“Oh my _god_ ”, Riku wanted to pull some of his hair off.

“You know what would’ve made me even more nervous? You suddenly dying on me after you kept telling me everything’s fine! What if I had just taken your word and left you there?”

 

Sora looked up again.

“But you didn’t”, he said, trying to sound cheerful.

Riku huffed, hard. Sora was right, he hadn’t left him, because he had wanted so badly to know more he just couldn’t let the change slip away. Not even if it meant letting someone he didn’t know inside his own home, stuffing them inside of his bathtub and leaving them there while Riku was away.

Riku opted in taking deep breaths yet again, until feeling somehow calmed down (or until he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to snap again), Riku returned to the earlier topic.

 

“So, you can just grow yourself a pair of legs?” he asked again.

“Do all merpeople do that?”

 

“I think so?” Sora answered, tilting his head to the left.

“You said your mother had merpeople blood in her, didn’t you?”

 

“I did”, Riku nodded.

“Or at least that’s what I’m told.”

 

“Nah, you definitely have some in you”, Sora smiled.

“But you said you study biology?”

 

“Yes?” Riku frowned.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

 

“Then you should know how people reproduce”, Sora answered.

“Seriously, how did you think it would’ve worked without these?”

Sora lifted his feet from the floor and wriggled his toes, but Riku knew that he was not referring to the them exactly.

A short, stunned silence fell between them. Riku knew that he was probably looking utterly horrified, judging from the very smug smile Sora was wearing on his face.

 

“I didn’t think”, Riku answered bluntly.

“I mean, I haven’t really thought about it before.”

 

Thirteen-year-old him had realised that half fish people were a stupid idea, but he had not thankfully been able to think about the part in human-merpeople relationships that had the actual reproducing part in it.

 

“Well, you’re welcome”, Sora said and leaned slightly away from Riku when Riku glared at him. He laughed, and even though Riku was sure that his mind was now eternally scarred from things it had thought during that short silent moment, he had to admit that it was kind of funny. So Riku laughed quietly, too, before he could stop himself from doing it. Sora looked now extremely pleased, and Riku swore that Sora’s whole face was shining somehow. How was it even possible for someone to make an expression like that?

 

“One question”, he said, after getting serious again. Or not very serious, laughing had definitely lifted the mood up. Sora shot him a curious look, prompting him to continue.

“How do you do it?”

 

Sora shrugged.

“Magic, probably”, he answered.

“I don’t know, you’re the marine biologist in here. How do you think it happens?”

 

“My guess is as good as yours”, Riku answered. He had now calmed down for real, somehow, and he started to pick up the groceries from the floor.

What had he expected? Half fish or not, merpeople weren’t still exactly something that his biology books could explain, so perhaps it was for the best to just accept the situation and the fact that Sora could grow a pair of legs if he wanted, probably with magic. It would probably prevent Riku from actually having an aneurysm if he just rolled with it.

Besides, this should be a lot easier now. He had his shower again, and if something happened, like if someone decided to light their apartment on fire, getting Sora with legs would be much, much easier to get out than Sora with dolphin tail. Yes, much easier.

Sora sat on the couch, watching as Riku put the groceries back in the shopping back. When Riku picked up the pineapple can near his feet, he cleared his throat.

 

“By the way”, he said. He batted his eyelashes and smiled in a way Riku thought was trying to be charming. It was, in a way those old ladies of the neighbourhood would absolutely give Sora anything he ever asked for if he used it on them.

“Do you have any pants?”

 

                                                                                                                           ⋆

 

“So”, Riku said, twirling pasta around his fork.

“You said I definitely have merpeople blood in me?”

 

They were sitting at the small kitchen table, eating a very quickly prepared one pan pasta. Riku had pretty much mastered the art of chopping every ingredient in under ten minutes and then throwing them all in the same pan. It wasn’t that he disliked cooking, but he was just trying to save energy. Not necessarily by cutting down the cooking time, but rather by reducing the number of dishes he would have to clean afterwards.

 

Sora was sitting on the opposite side of the table, left leg pulled up on the chair like he was ready to jump up any second. He was wearing Riku’s university hoodie again (Sora said he liked the deep red colour, and Riku had to admit that it suited Sora better than him), and a pair of Riku’s very old shorts Riku had found from the furthest corner of his dresser. They were the only pair of pants in the entire apartment that were small enough for Sora, as he was, like Riku had estimated, a lot smaller than Riku was. His eyes were barely on the height of Riku’s shoulder, even though his hair created some kind of illusion of couple of extra inches. He was in a good shape, presumably from spending most of his time swimming around, but he was still so much slimmer compared to Riku.

 

Riku put it down for Sora usually being a dolphin from the waist down. Having a slim physique most likely helped in swimming by being more streamlined. But he still couldn’t help but to feel like a grandma when he had put some extra pasta on Sora’s plate. It wouldn’t do harm in any means for Sora to gain few pounds.

And Sora didn’t seem to mind the amount of food he had in front of him. He had already cleared almost half of his plate in the same time Riku had only had few mouthfuls. He glanced at Riku after his question, chewing rapidly.

 

“Mmmh-mh”, he nodded.

 

“How do you know?” Riku asked.

 

He didn’t doubt his dad, and he didn’t doubt himself, but he still knew so little about anything relating to merpeople. Was there some kind of mark that told others if he was human or not?

Sora swallowed and took a deep breath, like he had been exercising and not just eating.

 

“It’s your eyes”, he said.

 

“What about them?” Riku asked.

 

“They are clearly merpeople eyes”, Sora said, before stuffing another fork full of pasta in his mouth.

 

Riku put down his own fork.

He did get a lot of compliments about his eyes. Kairi often liked to say that he looked like some kind of anime character or a mythical creature. She had said the latter even before Riku had told her about his heritage, so maybe Sora was right.

 

_Maybe it saw your eyes and knew that you were one of them._

 

His dad had said that all those years ago, hadn’t he? Riku hadn’t paid attention to it back then, as his mother being a part mermaid had been the biggest reveal. And Riku looked a lot like his dad, too, minus the eyes. They were from his mother.

 

“I guess so”, Riku said.

“You have very…well, not very common looking eyes, too.”

 

Sora swallowed, and grinned.

 

“Then there’s two of us”, he said, and Riku couldn’t help but to smile as well.

 

 

Riku left Sora asleep on the couch when he left the next morning. It was becoming very clear that Sora slept a lot more than Riku did. Sora had taken a long nap after the meal, and when Riku had finally been ready with his schoolwork (it took longer than usual because Sora had constantly pestered him about everything for the first hour or two), Sora was already out cold, his bandaged arm drooping over the edge of the couch. Riku had again managed to put a pillow under his head without Sora even stirring, before retreating to his own bedroom.

He had left Sora a note again, telling him to eat the leftover pasta from the fridge once he woke up, and then stay in the apartment, since he didn’t have a key, and Riku didn’t want another broken door. Thankfully it was already Friday, which meant Riku wouldn’t have to leave Sora alone in his apartment for the next couple of days.

 

It only occurred Riku that Sora could now just walk off freely back to the ocean if he wanted to when he was walking back home from department store, with a pair of new smaller shorts and a spare toothbrush in his backpack. Literally nothing was keeping him in the apartment, and apart from still healing cuts, Sora seemed to be doing just fine. At least if Sora sleeping for almost 12 hours a day was normal for him, anyway, and not just him catching up sleep now that he had some place to comfortably crash in.

But where Sora would even go? Other than back to the ocean. He had said to Riku that he didn’t have any other place to go than to go with Riku.

 

Riku also realised that he didn’t know where Sora usually stayed in the first place. Did he have his own home? He had said that he didn’t know where his family was, so clearly, he wasn’t living with them. And he probably didn’t live in the water all the time, since he needed to actually breathe (that ruled out all the underwater cities like the one in The Little Mermaid). And to think of it, Sora seemed to actually know how human things worked. He knew what pillows and bathtubs were, how the TV worked, and so on.

 

Riku should really ask him. Just to be sure that he wasn’t sleeping on the streets or anything like that. It would just get him in trouble or worse.

 

…if Sora even was there anymore, that was.

Riku didn’t know why he was surprised when he found Sora still laying on the couch, awake this time, lazily watching TV. He lifted his head when Riku walked in.

 

“Oh, you’re back already”, he said with a greeting smile, and Riku twitched his lips upwards as a response.

 

“Nice to see you actually awake”, Riku said. He then noticed the dirty plate and utensils on the coffee table.

“Put those in the sink, will you.”

 

“In a minute”, Sora responded and yawned. Riku rolled his eyes.

 

“I’m starting to think that you are just lazy”, he said, dropping his back to Sora’s feet before making his way to the kitchen.

“With all that sleeping and laying around. Have you done anything today?”

 

“It’s not like there’s much for me to do in here”, Sora said.

 

“How about stuff like doing the dishes?” Riku asked, eyeing the now empty pasta pot on the kitchen table. Sora made disgusted-sounding groan.

 

Riku sighed and moved to the fridge. He would have to figure out to what he should eat now. He was pretty sure he got stuff for sandwich in there, at least.

 

He was surprised to see two containers he was sure he didn’t own in the fridge. Riku turned to look back at the couch, where he could see Sora’s hair at the arm rest.

 

“Where did these come from?” he asked, pointing in the fridge. Sora sat up to be able to look over at Riku.

 

“Oh yeah”, he smiled, looking very pleased in himself.

“The old lady who lives at the end of the hallway gave them. She broke her ankle few weeks ago and is still hopping around with crutches, and she dropped her shopping bags to hallway floor. I heard the noise and went to see what it was and helped her to get them inside her apartment. She gave us food for thanks. There’s some kind of stew in the other one and cake in the other.”

 

Riku raised his eyebrows.

 

“So I was right”, he said.

“Old neighbourhood ladies do like you.”

 

“What?”

 

“Oh, nothing”, Riku hummed, taking the other container with the stew in it.

“Didn’t I tell you not to leave the apartment?”

 

“Yeah yeah”, Sora grinned.

“Don’t worry, I let the door unlocked, so it’s okay.”

 

“What about your arm?” Riku asked. Sora lifted his arm with no bandages around it.

 

“This is still working”, he answered.

“Now eat the stew, I want some cake.”

 

“I’m not giving you any if you don’t do the dishes”, Riku threatened. Sora gasped, and then pouted.

 

“Mean!”

 

Riku laughed, and Sora pouted even harder, calling Riku a jerk, before he very reluctantly took the plate and utensils from the coffee table and dragged himself to the kitchen.

 

“Happy?” he asked Riku, glaring at him.

 

“Very.” Sora groaned, but Riku could see from the corner of his eye that he was not pouting anymore.

 

 

 

“So, Sora”, Riku said.

“Where do you live?”

 

They were on the couch with their cake plates, watching reruns of World’s Deadliest Animals. Riku was only partially listening about the host very dramatically describing how the zebra snake kills its prey, but Sora seemed to be actually quite engrossed with the program. He didn’t seem to hear Riku’s question at first, eyes very focused on the TV, but then he glanced at Riku.

 

“Around here”, he answered. Vague answer, if anything.

 

“You don’t live in the water”, Riku said.

“Since you can’t actually breathe under it. And you seem to be quite familiar with human stuff.”

 

Sora shrugged.

 

“I am, yeah”, he said.

“I think I might have lived on the land before, you know, like in a city or something. Before I got here.”

 

Riku frowned.

“You think?” he asked.

“And you mean you haven’t always lived here?”

 

“I’m not sure”, Sora said.

“I don’t actually remember a lot of my childhood, you know? Like I do know all this stuff, like how the things in houses work or most of it at least, but about myself? I know my name and how old I am, but nothing else really. It’s kinda like one day I just started existing here.”

 

“That…sounds actually really worrisome”, Riku said.

“How long have you been here, then?”

 

“Don’t worry, I’ve been doing great!” Sora assured him, with his big reassuring smile on his face.

“I don’t know, since I was like ten? Or something. I can show you where I live! But we’ll need a boat, since I’m not allowed in the ocean and you can’t swim.”

 

Riku decided not to correct Sora that he could swim.

 

Did Sora have some sort of amnesia or something? It did sound like that, and judging from what Sora had told him earlier about not knowing where his family was, it seemed that he had been alone since he was ten or so. He should ask Sora how old he actually was, but that could wait a little.

 

“I know where we can get a boat”, he said.

“But you have to behave, or I will never get to borrow it again.”

 

“What do you mean? Of course I behave”, Sora grinned, and continued eating his piece of cake.

 

“I’m not so convinced”, Riku said.

“After all, you did break my door.”

 

“Are you _still_ going on with it?”

 

"It was only two days ago!"

 

                                                                 

                                                                                                                     ⋆

 

Riku didn’t actually know if Cid was even in town when they made their way to the smaller docking area, little away from the city center. The older man had previously not been out on the waters during Friday afternoons, but that could’ve changed, as Riku had not seen Cid properly for the past few weeks.

 

Sora was clearly happy to be outside nevertheless. Riku didn’t blame him, being first stuck in a bathtub for couple of days and then inside the rest of the small apartment surely wasn’t ideal for a merman who was used to spending his days outdoors. Sora skipped and zigzagged constantly around Riku, still making questions about garden fountains (Riku didn’t blame him for that either, all the fountains in this city Riku had seen so far were ridiculous), and Riku had to grab him way too many times to stop him from stepping onto something since Sora wasn’t wearing any shoes. He had tried on some of Riku’s, but they were all way too big and would’ve made walking very slow and unnecessarily difficult.

 

When they got to the docs, Sora ran to the water right away before Riku could do anything. He didn’t go too deep, only for the water to reach to midway to his calves, and then he just stood there unmoving, eyes closed, until Riku got to him.

 

“Feels good?” he asked. He remembered how it had been for him, when his dad had taken him to the ocean after Riku had accused him of lying.

 

Sora breather deep in and then out, before opening his eyes and turning to look at Riku.

 

“More than good”, he said, smiling brightly, and that was the first time Riku actually believed those words coming from him.

“So, you said we’ll get a boat from here?”

 

“I hope so”, Riku answered.

“We got to go and see if Cid’s here or if he’s going to even lend the boat for us…”

 

Riku had met Cid around a week after he had moved to the city. He had been just roaming around, making himself familiar with his surroundings, when he had wandered to the small docking area. He had ended up helping Cid with his boat’s engine problems, since it was very similar to the one his dad’s old boat had. They had gotten along pretty well, as Riku thought they had alike way of talking. Cid was friendly and nice, but he came out slightly grumpy at first, and Riku could relate to that. Riku took it as a habit to visit Cid every now and then and just sit down and talk, or to listen to Cid’s stories in most cases. But it was nice nevertheless. It reminded Riku of his dad in some ways.

He should really get a new phone and call his dad soon. If he was even within phone’s reach.

 

They did find Cid, sitting in a collapsible deckchair at the end of one of the docks, untangling one of his nets. He heard Riku approaching, and lifted his gaze, pushing his hat back from his face.

 

“Well, hi there, son”, he greeted Riku, and put the net down on the dock.

“Haven’t seen you in a while.”

 

“Sorry”, Riku tried to smile apoplectically.

“School’s keeping me busy.”

 

“Don’t sweat it, education is important”, Cid waved his hand in front of him.

“So, what brings you here today?”

 

“I was thinking, is it okay for us to lend your boat a bit?” Riku asked.

“Just for a little while.”

 

“Why, going treasure hunting?” Cid asked.

 

Cid was, like Riku, very adamant in reporting illegal fishing and keeping the waters clear from all the banned nets and other junk. Riku had been with him few times, just going around and picking up floating trashes. Cid called it treasure hunting, for some reason, and Riku hadn’t questioned it. Adults just were like that, sometimes.

 

Cid let him take the boat sometimes, as he trusted Riku to treat it well. Riku knew how to navigate with the boat, as his dad had taken his time to teach Riku about it. He knew how to repair the engine, how to tie the knots, and all the seamarks. Sometimes Riku wondered if his dad had hoped for him to become a fisherman too, back when he was a kid and his dads business was still going well enough to feed them both. It would’ve been logical, since his dad’s own father had been a fisherman too, and his father before him.

Maybe, had they stayed on the island, Riku would’ve taken his dad’s career after him.

 

“No, actually, I just wanted to show my friend around”, Riku said.

 

Cid raised his eyebrows, and leaned forth in his chair to look past Riku. Sora was standing a little bit further away from them, trying to feed a seagull with a tiny fish he had found somewhere.

 

“Oh, I didn’t see there was two of you now”, Cid said.

“Your friend, eh?”

 

“Yes. Just a second”, Riku turned around.

“Sora!”

 

Sora turned to look at them, and Riku waved for him to get closer. Sora tossed the fish away, and jogged to them, while the seagull got into fight with another bird over the fish.

 

“Hi!” he greeted Cid with a big smile, that Riku recognized as the one Sora used when trying to charm someone.

 

“Well, hi, kiddo”, Cid said, with slightly amused tone.

“Sora, it is? Wanting to go for a little ride?”

 

“Can we?” Sora asked.

“I really don’t get to go out on a boat much anymore, so it would be awesome.”

 

Well, at least Sora was good in talking his others to do what he wanted, Riku figured. So he’d been right about that too. Sora would smile, blink his big blue eyes and say some sweet things to get absolutely anyone on his side. Riku just hoped he would use that on innocent things only.

 

“Sure, sure”, Cid said.

“I don’t need it today anyways, I have stuff to do at the city once I’m done with this. Have fun on your little excursion. But first, you put on shoes, young man. No climbing onto a boat barefooted. I should have spare pair of some sort in the bag over there.”

 

“Sure thing!” Sora went to dig through a big textile bag Cid had gestured to. Riku saw how Cid’s eyes very clearly went over the bandages on Sora’s arm and neck, and when Sora’s back was turned on them, Cid looked at Riku and raised his eyebrows, questioning.

 

Riku shook his head.

 

“It’s nothing”, he whispered. Cid didn’t do anything for a few seconds, but he then nodded.

 

“Alright”, he said.

“So, Sora, you found them?”

 

“Yep!” Sora had a pair of bright yellow crocs on his hand.

“Thank you, Mr. Cid!”

 

“It’s nothing. Can’t risk you getting any more wounds on you”, Cid rose up from his chair.

 

Riku climbed on to Cid’s boat first, then helped Sora up too, and went to start the engine while Cid undid the ropes.

 

“Don’t be out there too late”, Cid said.

“It gets dark fast this time of a year. It’s not really safe to navigate there then, even if you know the area.”

 

“Don’t worry, we won’t be too long”, Riku assured him.

“Since Sora will probably fall asleep on the deck the minute the Sun goes down.”

 

“At least one of you has a decent sleep pattern then”, Cid said.

“You always look like you haven’t seen your bed for a week when you come down here.”

 

Riku laughed, short and dry, as he took the last rope from Cid’s hands and threw it on to the deck.

 

“Maybe he can teach me a few tricks on how to fall asleep effectively”, Riku said. Sora was on the other side of the deck, looking at the ocean, bouncing on his feet, and Riku felt a weird bang of déjà vu in his chest.

“We’ll be back.”

 

Cid waved his hand at them when Riku backed off from the dock and steered them away from the bay. Riku took a deep breath of ocean air in his lungs, before glancing at Sora.

 

“So, where to?” he shouted over the engine noise and the waves hitting the sides of the boat.

 

Sora was on bow, looking out on the horizon, like he was scoping.

 

“Over there!” he pointed with his finger.

“Past those little islands!”

 

Riku nodded, and steered more to the left, passing a cardinal mark.

 

“Just keep telling where to go!” he told Sora, who only smiled affirmatively to him.

 

                                                                                                                               ⋆ 

 

They drove for a long time, long enough for Riku to become a bit worried.

 

“Do you swim from here every day?” he asked.

 

“It’s much faster with a tail”, was Sora’s reply.

“Don’t worry, we are almost there! It’s that!”

 

Riku stretched his neck and squinted his eyes.

 

“Is that an island?” he asked. It seemed to be, something dark green in the middle of the ocean.

 

“Yep!” Sora answered happily.

“It’s pretty stony, you have to steer on the Eastern side for us to get on land.”

 

Sora was right. The island was outlined by rocks all over, and it took them time to get on the other side as Sora had suggested, as it was not a very small island. It grew huge, green trees, so thickly that Riku could not see anything else on there.

Sora clearly knew where he was going, because as soon as Riku had found a place for them to tie the boat and disembark, he climbed down from the bow and with quick steps, walked towards the trees.

 

“There’s a path here”, he told Riku.

“Just follow me.”

 

The path in question was narrow and almost hidden by all the tree branches. Sora was fine, being shorter and familiar with the surroundings, but Riku had to crouch with almost every other step to avoid being hit to the face by a tree of some sort.

They walked in silence for some time, before Sora spoke again.

 

“It’s good that we came here now”, he said.

“I had to retrieve one thing anyway.”

 

“What thing?” Riku asked, but then they came in to a clearing.

“Is…that a lighthouse?”

 

In the middle of the clearing stood an old, stone building, with a small tower that had already collapsed slightly from the top. Sora turned his head to look at Riku over his shoulder.

 

“I think so”, he said.

“This is where I live! Come on in, it’s not much but it’s still a roof over your head.”

 

Sora opened the old door swiftly, and stepped inside before Riku could say anything else.

 

 

 

Once inside, Riku decided that the building was in fact an old lighthouse.

 

There were maps and old posters of different kind of ships on the walls, an old calendar from two decades back, a toolbox in one corner and a spare light tucked under a large cloth in another. Stairs to the collapsed tower looked old and ready to collapse as well, so Riku didn’t test his luck to see if there was anything in the second floor.

Sora had disappeared to a smaller room on the left and judging for noises, he was searching for something.

 

“Do you need any help?” Riku asked.

 

“No no, I know exactly were it is!” Sora answered. Riku lingered for a moment, before going back to watching all the stuff on the walls.

 

Riku couldn’t remember this lighthouse being marked on any new maps, and it did seem like it hadn’t been in use for years, apart from Sora living there. The white paint on walls was crumbling, and beneath it the walls had multiple scrapes on them, almost like markings.

Riku frowned slightly, and stepped closer to the wall, scratching a little bit of the paint off with his nails, so he could see the scrapes better.

 

Up close it was obvious that they were not from the planks falling apart. The lines were clean and had no cracks in them. For Riku, it looked like someone had carved them there. But they were just lines, meandering up and down, not writing or anything like that.

Maybe one of the old workers had gotten bored and started carving. Riku was going to ask Sora about them, but right then Sora was back from the other room, something in his hand.

 

“Found it”, he said, showing his palm to Riku.

 

On Sora’s hand was a key. Old one, with only a few, distinctive tooth, silver still clean and shining despite the apparent old age.

 

“What’s it for?” Riku asked. Sora shrugged.

 

“I don’t know. I’ve just always had it”, he said, putting the key away in the pocket of his new shorts.

“It just feels like it’s important.”

 

Riku nodded. He had a few little things he was sentimental of, like the little sea shells he had gotten while still living on the island, so he understood if Sora was attached to the key, even without knowing what it would open.

 

“Do you need anything else?” he asked. He hadn’t seen anything that looked like it belonged to Sora, and he was somehow not surprised when Sora shook his head.

 

“Your apartment is too small for my rubbish”, Sora said.

“I would show you around, but there isn’t really anything to see here, just trees.”

 

“It’s okay”, Riku said.

“I think it’s time for us to get back anyway, the sun was already starting to set when we got here, and I don’t want to make Cid call coast guards on us.”

 

For some reason, Riku felt relieved when Sora nodded, and they started to make their way back to the boat.

 

                                                                                                                           ⋆

 

It was already getting dark when they got back, and Riku undid the ropes from the rocks and started the engine again. He had tried to memorize if there were any spots that needed avoiding and weren’t marked with buoys when he steered around the island to get back to the fairway, when Sora suddenly tapped him on his arm.

 

“There’s another boat”, Sora said, and gestured to their left. Riku turned down the gears and looked.

 

It took him a moment to make out the silhouette of a larger boat against the darkening sky (did Sora have better night vision than Riku did? Was that a thing?). It was anchored near the island, and after a minute, Riku saw how a smaller boat was launched from the bigger one, and it started making its way towards the island.

 

The waves hitting their boats sides seemed to talk to him, whisper to him urgently. _Go, go, leave already._ Something squeezed horribly in Riku’s stomach, and he turned the gears back up.

 

“Let’s just go”, he said to Sora, who in the last faint, lingering rays of sun looked uncharacteristically serious.

 

“Who do you think they were?” Sora asked, when they were far enough to not even see the island anymore.

 

“I don’t know”, Riku answered.

“And for some reason, I don’t think we even want to know.”

 

 

 

Cid was waiting for them on the dock when they got back.

 

“There you are”, he said, when Riku stopped the engine.

“I was about to call the coast guard after you in a minute.”

 

Riku opened his mouth to apologize, but Sora rushed to his side.

 

“We’re sorry!” he said.

“We made a little detour because I insisted. I’m very good in talking people to do what they want, and Riku is easy to persuade.”

 

He flashed Cid a grin. Cid sighed and mumbled something under his breath, but Riku could see that the older man was just relieved.

 

“Grow yourself a spine, Riku”, Cid said.

“You can’t let boys just talk you in to things.”

 

“Hey”, Riku said.

“It’s not like I let just anyone to talk me over.”

 

“Whatever you say, son”, Cid said, taking the ropes Riku tossed at him and started to tie them up.

“I’m just glad you made it back. Be thankful that you don’t have classes tomorrow, so you might get a good night of sleep.”

 

Riku hopped down to the dock, and then gave his arm as a support for Sora. Sora smiled to Cid again.

 

“Thank you for lending as the boat”, he said politely.

“Oh, I almost forgot the give your shoes back-“

 

“Nah, just keep them”, Cid waved his hand dismissingly.

“People leave all kind of junk on the ground, you don’t want to step on anything, do you?”

 

They started to make their way back to the apartment, after Sora thanking Cid again and Cid making them promise that they would stop by again. Sora yawned and flopped on to the couch right away when they stepped inside Riku’s apartment, face first.

 

“Eat something and brush your teeth”, Riku told him. Sora made a low whining noise, but got back up. They ate a quick evening snack, and after Riku got out from the shower, Sora was out on the couch, cheek pressed against the pillow. The key was now on the coffee table, silver shining faintly under the living rooms lights.

 

For some reason, Riku now felt that Sora had meant something entirely different when saying that the key was important, than just being sentimentally attached to it.

Riku sighed, stepping closer to the couch.

 

“Who you even are, really?” Riku asked quietly out loud. Sora hummed something, curling up tighter, and before Riku could stop himself, he reached down and patted Sora’s hair lightly.

 

Riku sighed again.

 

“Not that it really matters”, he said, and turned off the lights before going to the bedroom and crawling in to his bed. He fell asleep a lot faster than he had anticipated, dreaming of room full of carvings and dark figures lurking somewhere near.

 

 

They both slept in late the next morning, not getting up before it was nearly midday. Riku was making pancake batter while Sora tried to comb his damp hair after getting a shower. Riku couldn’t remember the last time he had had pancakes, but Sora had requested them, and that had made Riku crave for something sweet too.

There was a knock on the door just as Riku put the batter the fridge to rest for a few minutes. Riku frowned slightly, before opening the door. He wasn’t expecting anyone, so who…

 

A small, old lady stood behind the door, crutches in hands, and Riku remembered what Sora had told him yesterday about the old lady living on the other end of the hallway.

 

“Oh!” the old lady looked Riku up and down.

“Oh, pardon me, I might’ve chosen the wrong door. Does Sora live here?”

 

Hearing his name, Sora abandoned the comb, and strode very quickly to the door as well before Riku could answer anything. For a merman he was really quick on his feet.

 

“Good morning, Mrs. Papadopoulos”, Sora greeted with a smile, and Riku wanted to retreat from the door before he started to look even more unpolite next to Sora than he already did.

 

“Good morning, Sora”, Mrs. Papadopoulos smiled back, and then smiled to Riku too.

“And good morning to you too.”

 

“Good morning”, Riku tried to smile, but he figured that it was more of a twitch compared to Sora’s beaming beside him.

 

“This is Riku”, Sora introduced him.

“He’s the one who actually lives here, but he was at school yesterday when we met.”

 

“Oh, pardon me again”, Mrs. Papadopoulos said.

“Are you boys busy? I have few boxes that need to be moved to the attic, but I can’t do it myself right now. Would you be kind and help me a little?”

 

“Of course!” Sora said, and was already stepping out of the door, when Riku stopped him.

 

“You are not doing anything”, Riku said.

“Your arm is still healing, you’re going to lift absolutely nothing.”

 

“Sora!” Mrs. Papadopoulos scolded.

“Why didn’t you say so yesterday? I wouldn’t have made you help me if I had known!”

 

Sora laughed.

 

“I’m sorry”, he smiled sheepishly.

“I thought it was better already, it won’t happen again. But Riku will get your boxes to the attic in a second!”

 

Mrs. Papadopoulos looked at Riku, and even though Riku had already agreed to do it in his mind, he now became aware of how rude it would be to not to help.

 

“Sure”, Riku said.

“I’m sure it won’t take long.”

 

“Not with those young and strong arms you have”, Mrs. Papadopoulos said, turning around with a bit effort because of the crutches.

“Let’s get going then, so you’ll get back to your own things.”

 

Riku grabbed his keys, and then he and Sora followed Mrs. Papadopoulos to her apartment.

 

“Really?” Riku whispered very quietly to Sora’s ear.

“You can agree that easily with her about being injured, but not with me?”

 

“She’s an old lady”, Sora whispered back.

“You have to be nice to old ladies, Riku.”

 

“Does that mean you don’t have to be nice to me, then?”

 

“I am nice to you! I even did the dishes yesterday, remember?”

 

“Yeah, after I threatened you, so try again”, Riku said, and grinned a little when Sora pouted at him.

 

“Jerk”, Sora mumbled, and ducked his head when Riku ruffled his still damp hair, making it messy from the back.

 

“Would you like to stay for tea when you’re ready?” Mrs. Papadopoulos asked. Riku glanced at Sora, who nudged him slightly to the side.

 

_Just what am I going to do with you_ , Riku thought, before looking back to Mrs. Papadopoulos.

 

“Sure”, Riku said.

“Tea would be nice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, writing: oh this is not going to be so long!  
> Chapter: is almost 7000 words.  
> Me: well
> 
> And the plot thickens (yes, this shit actually has a plot, believe me), and Sora, yet again, has his key...and his yellow shoes.
> 
> I am channeling myself in Riku so hard again, since I was 9 when I learned to ride a boat. My grandfather is an amateur fisher, and I've been with him on the boat multiple times as a kid. Here you can ride a boat without a licence if the boat is under 10 meters (my grandfathers is around 6 meters and my mothers is around 9), but since I am planning in specializing in oceanography, I'm going to actually get the licence somewhere near future.


	5. Chapter 5

Kairi was back in classes on Monday.

 

By Monday morning, Riku had talked to more people during the weekend than he normally talked during the whole week. Mrs. Papadopoulos had asked him about absolutely everything over the tea, what did he study, where was he from, what did his dad do for living. And just when they were leaving, the next-door neighbour had appeared, asking Mrs. Papadopoulos to look after her cat while she was away. And Mrs. Papadopoulos had declined, saying that she was leaving too, to see her son, and that had led to Sora excitedly telling the neighbour (Katie, she had introduced herself) that he and Riku would take care of the cat. And now Riku was somehow a cat-sitter for the next three days before Katie would come back home.

 

Well, at least Sora was happy. Riku was okay with animals (he kind of had to, as a biology student), and he had had a cat before (it had been Maya’s cat, but it had still lived in the same house with Riku), so he was okay with looking after the cat, but Sora had been absolutely ecstatic about it.

Now that Riku thought about it, Sora hadn’t probably gotten to play with cats a lot during his life before.

 

“Are you now going to tell me what happened last week?” Kairi asked. They were at the student lounge next to the biology departments library, sitting close to the windows so they could talk without anyone eavesdropping.

 

Riku pondered for a moment where to begin.

 

“I met one of _them_ ”, he said then. Perhaps it was easiest to just go straight to the point.

 

Kairi was silent for exactly two seconds, before her eyes widened and she gasped.

 

“You did?” she asked voice raising, and Riku had to shush her.

“How?”

 

“He was stuck on a longline”, Riku explained.

“I helped him out of it just before he drowned from having his head stuck underwater.”

 

Kairi shot him a questioning look, so Riku continued.

 

“He’s half dolphin, so he has lungs. Apparently, fish-people don’t exist.”

 

“Okay”, Kairi said.

“Marine mammal in the truest. Right up your alley, then. How was it?”

 

“…weird”, Riku answered.

“I had thought that they would be so different, but he’s…very human.”

 

If there even was a difference in the first place. Riku sure couldn’t find anything anymore even if he tried.

 

Kairi nodded, and watched Riku’s face, looking thoughtful.

 

“Have you seen him after that?” she asked. Riku nodded. He would tell Kairi in a minute about dragging Sora all the way into his apartment and try to explain why he had thought it was a good idea.

“What’s he like?”

 

“Happy”, Riku said.

“Friendly, likes smiling apparently, ready to help like a little boy scout. That kind of person who makes you think if they’re even real.”

 

Riku had thought about it when leaving that morning. Maybe this whole thing was just really happening inside his head, and his mind had somehow managed to create an absolutely nicest being possible. In that case Riku would really have to applaud himself.

 

Kairi still had that thoughtful look on her face, before she suddenly grinned.

 

“You like him”, she said. Riku’s brain short-circuited itself for a second.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

“You do this while you talk about him”, Kairi turned her face in to a very soft, barely noticeably smile.

“I was worried about you, you know? You were always so tired and everything, and I thought it might’ve be too much for you, but…I’m happy if you found someone to get along to, even if he is something else.”

 

“Sora is easy to get along with”, Riku murmured.

 

He had known Kairi had been worried about him. She had brought it up enough times, but it still stung deep in Riku’s chest seeing her so openly relieved because he had found a friend.

And Sora was easy to get along with, and he made getting along with other people look so easy too, leaving Riku vaguely feeling like there was something wrong with him for not being able to do even half of what Sora did.

 

“So he’s name is Sora?” Kairi smiled again her own smile.

“It’s a pretty name.”

 

“And fitting”, Riku said, thinking of Sora’s very blue and very big eyes. Kairi giggled, softly, and Riku wondered if his face was doing something again. It was just difficult not to smile while thinking about Sora, his expressions were rather contagious.

 

“So, when are you going to meet him again?” Kairi asked, and Riku realised that now would be a good moment to tell her that Sora was currently living on his couch.

 

He was just about to, when someone suddenly shouted his name.

 

“Riku!” there was no mistaking the voice, and Riku turned around in his chair so fast he almost tipped it over.

 

Sora was standing at the other side of the student lounge, wearing the new shorts Riku had bought him, one of Riku’s old and quite faded t-shirts and those horribly yellow and slightly too big crocs Cid had given him, smiling like he was trying to light the whole room. He had drawn attention of most of the other students in the lounge as he almost skipped through the room to where Riku and Kairi were.

 

“Hey”, Sora greeted them, sitting to the chair next to Riku.

 

“Hey”, Riku greeted back, confused.

“What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at Katie’s watching the cat?”

 

“I did it already”, Sora answered.

“It was nice and all, but I got pretty lonely after it decided to go and take a nap, so I figured I’d go and take a walk and decided to come see you while I was at it.”

 

“Okay, sure”, Riku shook his head slightly.

“How did you find me? This place is huge.”

 

He had told Sora where the university was, so it wouldn’t have been too difficult to find the campus area, but the many buildings were hard to navigate, even for Riku after being there for months now.

 

“By asking others, duh”, Sora grinned.

“I asked from the info desk where the biology department was, and then just started asking if anyone had seen you today.”

 

Sora looked so pleased with himself Riku couldn’t help but smile a little.

 

“Okay, okay”, he said.

“Did you eat something before you left?”

 

“I’m not a child Riku, and besides, I have lived longer on my own than you have, remember?” Sora rolled his eyes dramatically. While doing so, his eyes landed on Kairi, who was watching them with an expression mixed with confusion and amusement.

“Oh, sorry, did I interrupt something?” Sora asked.

 

“No, don’t worry”, Kairi smiled sweetly.

“I’m Kairi, nice to meet you.”

 

“I’m Sora, nice to meet you too”, Sora said, returning to Kairi’s smile.

 

Kairi blinked, and looked at Riku, and Riku could clearly see her eyes asking him _what the hell is this, Riku?_

 

“It’s a long story”, Riku said. Kairi sighed and murmured something under her breath, but then smiled again a little.

 

“Well, I guess it can wait just a little bit”, she said.

“We can go to my place after the rest of the classes. But now, more importantly, _what are those?”_

 

For a second Riku thought Kairi was talking about Sora’s legs, as she gestured down with her hands, but then he realised that she was gesturing way down.

 

“They are my crocs”, Sora answered, brows arched up.

“What about them?”

 

“Nothing, I just…oh my god, Riku, did you dress him?” Kairi was now laughing, and Riku huffed.

 

“What is that supposed to mean?”

 

“None of it goes together at all!” Kairi snickered.

“And oh my gosh, is that your shirt he’s wearing?”

 

Kairi was not huge on fashion, but she was still punctual about wearing stuff that went together and looked nice on her, and that was understandable. Riku had never given his own clothing choices a second thought before starting in university, and Kairi telling him (while laughing, of course) that he dressed up like some kind of bad video game character (“Riku, do you want everyone to know that you have abs, or have you just grown out of that shirt and hadn’t realised it?”). Riku had, very quickly, just opted in wearing jeans and tees to get rid of her heckling, no matter how friendly it was. He hadn’t bothered to go through his wardrobe to put away the clothes he didn’t use anymore, and Sora, who had clearly went through his closet to find something to wear, had managed to snatch up one of those shirts Kairi had totally lost herself over with before.

 

“Kairi, stop, please”, Riku groaned. Sora was now looking at the shirt, with puzzled expression on his face.

 

“What’s wrong with this?” he asked, looking up at Riku.

“It’s comfortable.”

 

“Nothing is wrong with it, Jesus, Kairi, stop”, Riku swatted his hand towards Kairi, who was still laughing. She leaned back and placed her palm over her mouth to muffle her laughter. The last thing he needed was to Kairi somehow drag Sora in to teasing him as well.

 

“I’m sorry”, Kairi snorted, and Riku glared at her.

 

“Are you done?” he asked. Kairi took a deep breath to calm herself down, and then nodded. Her grin didn’t go away, but Riku let it be. He knew this was a battle he would lose even if he tried.

 

Sora still looked confused, but he was smiling nevertheless, although Riku felt that it was more just an empathetic smile than anything else. There were other students watching them, curious, and for some reason, Riku’s cheeks felt warm.

 

“Why you always have to do this?” he asked Kairi.

 

“Do what?” Kairi asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.

 

“Make me feel uncool in front of others”, Riku said. Kairi sighed, shaking her head slightly.

 

“I know you, Riku, and I know how you are under that mysterious pretty boy look”, Kairi said, but her tone was fond.

 

Sora leaned closer to Riku, and put his hand on Riku’s shoulder.

 

“Don’t worry”, he said.

“I think you’re cool.”

 

Yeah, Riku’s cheeks definitely felt warm. And they grew from warm to hot when Kairi started giggling again.

 

                                                                                                                        ⋆

 

 

Kairi’s place was a lot nicer than Riku’s, and a lot bigger too.

 

That was not surprise: both of Kairi’s parents had very high-end jobs, her mother being a lawyer and her father a doctor, so they could afford her a nice and spacey apartment. The building was new and in a middle of detached houses and big gardens, and while it wasn’t near the beach itself, living in the upper floors gave a nice view over the city all the way to the ocean.

Despite having rich parents who payed for her living and tuition, Kairi was the paragon of the girl next door. Never too flashy, charitable and studying law just because she wanted to do good, not for the salary. With her bright smiles and helping hands, Riku knew she and Sora would click instantly.

 

And they did. At some point Riku stopped listening to their babbling, only awakening from his voluntary slumber to stop Sora from helping Kairi with bringing soda bottles and glasses and cookies to the table.

 

“Why do you always have to do everything?” Riku asked while taking glasses away from Sora’s hands.

“Humour me and sit down at least for a whole minute.”

 

Sora pouted, trying to look somehow intimidating, but the expression came out making him only look like a slightly irritated pre-schooler, before dissipating quickly as he sat down and Kairi pushed the cookie tray closer to him. He started happily munching while Riku poured each of them soda before sitting down as well.

 

“Now that there’s no one to stare at us, could you now fill me in of what’s happened?” Kairi asked, taking a cookie too.

 

It really took time, and half an hour in, Kairi interrupted them to retrieve her bag and to pull out a notebook to actually make notes about what they said. Riku tried to see what she wrote exactly, but Kairi’s handwriting was small and curly cursive, and seeing it upside down made it impossible to make anything out of it.

 

“Okay, so, recap”, Kairi said, when they finally got the end.

“You have lived by your own for the last ten or so years, on the island with an old lighthouse. You don’t remember anything from your past, but you think you might’ve lived on land before?”

 

She looked straight at Sora, who shrugged.

 

“It’s the only explanation I can come up to”, he said.

“I don’t understand how else I would know about all the stuff, and know that they are human things in general.”

 

“True”, Kairi tapped the notebook with the pen.

“And you just…appeared on the island?”

 

Sora nodded.

 

“I just woke up there one morning”, he said.

“Inside the lighthouse, with the key in my hand.”

 

Sora reached for the pocket of his shorts, and pulled the key out, handing it over to Kairi. Kairi took the key, and carefully turned it around in her fingers, inspecting it closely.

 

“And you don’t remember having this before?” she asked. Sora shook his head again.

“You think someone would’ve left it with you?”

 

Sora pursed his lips, thinking.

 

“But who?” he asked. Riku put down his now empty glass on the table.

 

“Have you ever asked your friends, if they know anything?” Riku asked. Sora looked at him, and Riku could swear he looked confused again for a split second.

 

“They don’t”, Sora said, a little bit too fast.

“I just appeared there, one day, and that was it.”

 

He avoided looking at Riku, instead keeping his eyes strictly on Kairi, who handed the key back to him.

 

“This if anything sounds like a mystery to me”, she said, grinning slightly.

“And we got to get to the bottom of this. We have to be like, detectives.”

 

That got Sora smiling again, and he and Kairi soon returned to their enthusiastic babbling about something Riku could not keep himself on track for, not even if he tried. Something was squeezing on the bottom of his stomach again, and the sensation blurred everything else out.

He snapped out of it when Kairi placed her hand on his shoulder.

 

“Riku?” there was a hint of concern in her eyes as she looked at him. Riku gently shrugged her hand of, and tried to give her a smile.

 

“Sorry, I was in my thoughts. Did you say something?” he asked. Kairi tilted her head and she was silent for a second, before smiling back at him.

 

“I was just suggesting that we should go out”, she said.

“It’s not so hot today, and the weather is beautiful, it would be a shame to just sit the whole evening inside the walls.”

 

Riku raised his eyebrows.

 

“Are we done talking about this “mystery” already?” he asked. Kairi looked at Sora, who was already at the door, putting on his crocs. Sora looked back at Kairi, and then he turned his blue eyes at Riku, with something in them Riku couldn’t recognise.

 

“For now, yes”, Kairi said.

“We don’t have any leads yet, and we’re not going to waste this beautiful evening in here.”

 

“Let’s gooooooo, Rikuuuu”, Sora whined, bouncing at his heels, and for some reason, Riku found it more endearing than annoying, even though it should have been more the latter than it was the first by all means. Riku was pretty sure Sora’s smiles were actually radiating something that was making his brain soft.

 

“I’m coming, I’m coming”, he huffed, getting up.

“What are you, six?”

 

Sora pouted, again, and Riku came to the conclusion that Sora could, in fact, only look like a six-year-old when trying to look angry, which only further proved him right.

Kairi laughed, and Sora laughed, too, and suddenly Riku knew that he had been in this situation before.

Kairi was bright and doing all the right things jut because they were right, and Sora was all smiles and as Riku had predicted, the master of making friends. And Riku was the different one, the tall and broody as Kairi had said it earlier.

 

It didn’t mean anything. Kairi was his friend, dearly so, and Riku hoped that Sora saw him as a friend too. But it also didn’t change the sudden feeling of not belonging yet again.

 

“Riku?” Riku looked down, to Sora’s blue, so very blue eyes, that looked at him again with something in them Riku could not recognise.

 

“It’s nothing”, Riku said, before Sora could say anything else. It really wasn’t, it was just him.

“Let’s go before you explode, you little child.”

 

“I’m only like a year younger than you!” Sora exclaimed, though he did not stop bouncing while waiting for Riku and Kairi to put on shoes too. Riku had assumed that Sora would bolt out of the door the second they were ready, but instead he stayed put until Kairi had stepped out, and when Riku stopped to sneak a look at him, he noticed Sora looking back.

 

Riku tried to understand what was going on as he stepped out of Kairi’s apartment and only then Sora followed, even though he had been in hurry just a minute ago. But then the moment was gone, and Sora skipped few feet ahead of them the whole way outside, only turning to look at them to tell Riku and Kairi to hurry up.

 

 

Kairi had been completely right about beautiful evening. The sun was not yet setting, but the rays had turned to more golden from bright white, and the humidness and striking hotness had both toned down by several notches.

Other people than them had noticed the same thing. The district was much livelier than Riku’s in the first place, but nice and bearable weather had coaxed what seemed to Riku the whole neighbourhood to come out at the same time. There were adults standing around, leaning on the fence, parents playing with their toddlers on the grass, teenager sitting on steps of one building and kids playing soccer on the field next to Kairi’s apartment.

 

Sora had his eyes immediately on the soccer game, and before Riku could stop him, he had already sprinted to the sideline of the field.

 

“Sora, back!” Riku yelled.

“You are not going to play with your arm and neck like that!”

 

“It’s soccer, Riku, I’m not going to use my arms or my neck!” Sora yelled back. The kids were now interested in him, already pulling Sora in the game, one even gripping his hand to get him on their team.

 

Kairi laughed, and hit Riku gently on the bicep.

 

“For me it seems like you can’t stop him, unless you go and like, carry him back”, she snickered.

“You have enough strength for that, as we know.”

 

He did indeed have enough strength to just pick Sora up, as Riku estimated that he was a lot lighter now without the tail. But Sora was already playing, kids running around him and laughing with delight. Sora was laughing too, loud and deep, and Riku couldn’t get himself to move.

 

“God, give me strength”, he muttered under his breath, before yelling again.

“I’m not going to take you to the ER if you tear something and have to get stiches!”

 

“Yeah, yeah!” Sora yelled back, probably not even hearing what Riku had actually said.

 

Riku made a frustrated noise, and Kairi likely saw it as a sign to avert his attention in to something else.

 

“Let’s go sit on the swing”, she said, grabbing Riku’s hand and tugging him along.

“I’m sure Sora will be okay.”

 

“Fine”, Riku puffed, letting himself to be lead to the small outdoor swing that was still unoccupied by some miracle.

 

“I see what you meant now”, Kairi said, when they’ve sat down, and Riku’s eyes were back on the field.

 

“Hm?” Riku looked at Kairi in askance.

“Meant what?”

 

“That Sora is easy to get along with”, Kairi said. Her eyes looked briefly at the field too, and she chuckled.

“There he goes, one second and everybody loves him already.”

 

Riku huffed out a breath.

 

“I know”, he murmured. Kairi looked at him, and Riku was almost certain that he saw something twinkle in her eyes, but when Riku turned his attention to her, it was gone.

 

“I mean, I have never seen you become friends with someone so fast”, Kairi said. Riku raised his eyebrows.

 

“I became friends with you fast”, he pointed out. Kairi shook her head.

 

“It took me over two weeks to get you to talk about something else than schoolwork”, she said.

“And you know I’ve been worried about you for not having friends. I’ll always be there for you, but I’ve been afraid that at some point I won’t be enough, so I’m really happy you found him.”

 

Riku wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say. He didn’t like when Kairi worried, but he understood her still.

 

“That’s Sora for you”, he said, and Kairi shook her head again.

 

“It’s you too”, she said.

“It always takes two to become friends. I’m good with people, but I can’t say that I clicked with you the same way you and Sora have. I could swear that you have known each other for way longer than just for a week.”

 

Now Riku was at complete lost of words. Was it really like that? He hadn’t thought that he was acting any differently with Sora than he was with anyone else, if he did not count the fact that Sora was easy to talk with than most people were in his opinion. But now that Kairi said it…he did feel to be somehow in ease with Sora, as sappy as it sounded.

 

Kairi grinned at him.

 

“Besides, I’m sure Sora likes you too”, she said, and Riku brains did the brief short-circuiting again.

 

“He’s like that with everyone”, Riku blurted, feeling embarrassed for a reason he did not know.

“You two got along well enough for me, I mean.”

 

“We’re both just very good in small talk”, Kairi said.

“It’s a very different thing in being good with talking about nothing at all than really caring. Sora looked so god damn worried when you kinda ignored us while looking grim and didn’t answer right away. It was such a genuine expression that I can’t imagine a person looking at someone else with it and not like them.”

 

Again, for a reason Riku did not know, he felt his face getting warm. Well, he supposed it was nice if someone liked him. He had just thought that seeking acceptance and getting flustered about it would have been left behind in middle school.

 

“What was it about, anyway?” Kairi asked, now more serious. Riku shrugged.

 

“I don’t know. Something in that key just… makes me unnerved”, he answered.

 

It made him think of the other ship they had seen near the island, and how someone from that ship had also actually went on the island as well. Like Sora had said, there was absolutely nothing beside the lighthouse than trees, so Riku couldn’t think of anything someone would’ve searched from there, especially in the dark.

And it made him nervous too.

 

Kairi nodded.

 

“Yeah, him just having something he doesn’t recall having before, after he just appeared in a foreign place is really unnerving”, she said.

 

“So you believe that he just suddenly got here, and doesn’t remember anything?” Riku asked.

 

It wasn’t like he didn’t believe Sora, but Riku always thought too much. He thought of all of the other possibilities there were, and about the possibility that Sora was sugar coating something, so they wouldn’t be worried.

 

“I like to think I have a good sense with people”, Kairi answered.

“And I don’t think Sora is a very good liar. He seems to be far too open faced for that.”

 

Riku sighed, rubbing his neck.

 

“You’re probably right”, he said.

 

I hope you’re right, he added in his mind.

 

 

 

Riku only managed to get Sora home after the kids stopped playing and their parents called them in. They bid their farewells to Kairi, who made them promise that they would visit again.

 

“Does anything hurt?” Riku asked, when they walked towards his apartment.

 

“Maybe a little”, Sora said.

“Nothing too bad, so you don’t have to take me to ER or whatever you said.”

 

Riku still checked all the cuts when they got home. The smaller ones were healing rapidly, and the ones in the arm and neck looked much better as well, though Riku estimated that they would still take some time to heal properly.

Sora was too tired to go see the cat, so Riku left him falling asleep on the couch while he visited Katie’s. When he got back Sora was, like he had presumed, in deep sleep, and the key was again on the coffee table.

 

Riku stared at the key for a long moment before turning around.

 

He was just paranoid. It was nothing. It was just key. It was just an ordinary key that Sora had for some unknown reason.

It was just a key.

 

                                                                                                                               ⋆

 

“There’s curry in the fridge for lunch.”

 

“Mmh.”

 

“Katie’s key is on the counter, next to the spare key and the money. If something happens, go to Mrs. Papadopoulos and ask for the phone.”

 

“Riku, you’re going to be late.”

 

Riku took a deep breath.

 

“Right”, he said.

 

Every other Wednesday was a field trip day in ethology. Riku really liked field days, as he liked doing something practical over just sitting and studying, even when he liked reading as well. But university was full of reading, so every change to the routine stood up even more than it usually would.

The only downside of the whole thing this time was that Sora would have to be alone at home for the whole day. Sora himself didn’t seem to mind, but Riku felt like he didn’t honestly mind anything, or if he did, he didn’t say it out loud.

 

Sora smiled at him, sunny and bright despite the fact that Riku had awoken him far earlier than he usually did.

 

“I know how to take care of myself”, he said.

“Go and have fun, Kairi said that you really like these kinds of days. And she said you have been waiting for this one in particular.”

 

That was true. Alongside their own teacher there would be visitors from SPREP, and Riku had really been waiting for this exact field day. He had chosen marine biology as his major for other reasons too than just to get closer to merpeople.

He just couldn’t help but feel anxious for some reason.

 

“Right”, Riku said again.

“Just don’t set anything on fire or drown in the bathtub or anything.”

 

Sora chuckled.

 

“I promise I won’t set anything on fire or drown in the bathtub or whatever”, he repeated.

“Now go already, I want to go back to sleep.”

 

That made Riku give a laugh as well.

 

“Of course you do”, he said.

“Don’t just sleep for the whole day.”

 

Sora only hummed as an answer, and when Riku had put on his shoes, he was already asleep again. Riku rolled his eyes.

 

“Seriously”, he said.

“You’re impossible.”

 

Sora might have heard him through his sleep, because Riku saw him grinning faintly. Shaking his head Riku finally made his way out of the apartment. Sora had been right about him going to be late soon, and Riku patted himself on the back for picking up an apartment close to the beach, so he wouldn’t have to run the whole way to the bigger docks to make it in time.

 

 

Most of their class was already waiting on the dock, including Kairi, and Riku made his way to her.

 

“Morning”, he said.

 

“Morning”, Kairi answered, and yawned loudly. She looked at Riku.

“Funny to see that you’re the one of us who doesn’t look tired, Mister ‘I am nocturnal’.”

 

Oh, yeah. Riku had completely forgot about the conversation they had had a little over week ago about Riku’s sleeping habits, in which Riku had told her that it would be inhumane to go to topography class at 8 a.m.

 

“Sora goes to sleep early”, Riku told her. Sora was always out before ten, and while Riku stayed up for a little longer than that, he found it somewhat awkward to be awake when someone else was sleeping in the same room, which meant that he usually found himself in his bed before midnight as well.

 

“Remind me to thank him about fixing your sleeping habits”, Kairi yawned again.

“I’m extremely happy that you have someone to dedicate all of your world saving tendencies now, if it means that you actually go to sleep.”

 

“Says someone who studies law and preservation”, Riku said. Kairi shot him a dirty look.

 

“Says the one who prances awake all nights saving the local wildlife just because”, she poked Riku between his ribs.

“Why do you always have to try and sabotage yourself.”

 

“Because you make me sound better than I actually am?” Riku asked. Kairi poked him again.

 

“Just shut up”, she almost hissed.

“Or I am going to tell Sora to look at you sadly until you appreciate yourself.”

 

“I do appreciate myself”, Riku muttered, scooting few inches further just in case Kairi’s fingers would be getting close to his side again.

 

_“Good._ Because sometimes I seriously doubt it.”

 

Then their teacher started to usher them in to the boat and checking if everyone was present, and that spared Riku from having to continue the conversation with Kairi.

 

Due to it being early morning, the sky was still pale and the air chilly, and they all huddled close together to the boats bow as their teacher started speaking and introducing their visitors.

 

“We are very fortunate to have workers from SPREP today here with us”, Ms. Takaoka said.

“Tagging is a very widely used method in studying and gathering data of animal behaviour, and it’s something you all will come upon in your career, so this is a great opportunity to learn how it happens in practise. As we have learned in during our previous classes, the beach areas surrounding this region plays a big role in reproduction of sea turtles by granting them nesting grounds. As the we know, the local population usually starts its nesting season around this time, we are going to see how many new turtles there will be this time around.”

 

Ms. Takaoka then started talking about SPREP and the two workers who were with them today, and Riku greeted them alongside the rest of the class. This wasn’t  new information to him, but he was, admittedly, exited about the day. Sora would’ve probably loved to see the process too, as he had been previously very interested in Riku’s schoolwork.

He would have to ask Kairi to take pictures he could show to Sora to make up to him for having to leave him home. Though Sora had probably seen turtles before, being a merman and everything…

 

_Concentrate, Riku. You can go on a few hours without thinking about Sora, can’t you?_ his brains sounded almost accusing.

 

During the past couple of days, Riku had really, really thought of what Kairi had said. He had to admit, once again, that she was right. Riku tried to put anyone else in Sora’s place, anyone, but he just couldn’t imagine himself behaving the same way he did with someone else. There was something in Sora that made Riku relaxed and anxious at the same time over him, and it was so weird that Riku had came to the conclusion that it wasn’t just because he was curious about merpeople in general.

He just didn’t know what is was. Maybe, just maybe, he had been lonely, and like Kairi said, Sora just made something click in Riku and made him behave outside of all the barriers he has build for himself over his life. And Riku couldn’t lie and say that it didn’t make him feel nervous. He liked being in control of his own behaviour, which he really hadn’t been during the past week.

 

They departed from the dock, and Kairi pressed herself close to his side.

 

“I can hear you thinking”, she said.

“And I don’t think I need to remind you that you can talk to me if you need to. Or to Sora. I’m sure Sora would love to hear your thoughts.”

 

She had started her sentence with serious face, but it had warped to sly grin towards the end. Riku shrugged her off, but Kairi only laughed at him behind her hands.

 

“I seriously don’t understand you sometimes”, Riku told her.

 

“You don’t have to”, Kairi grinned, and, yet again, Riku decided that it would be much easier to just give up.

 

                                                                                                                                ⋆

 

The day went fast once sun was up and they got to the right beaches.

 

Riku was truly able to concentrate when they pulled out turtle after turtle, checked if it already had a tag, placed one if it didn’t, made measurements and let it go, rinse and repeat. The SPREPS workers let each of them participate too in the process, and Riku was more than relieved when he managed to get through the tagging without even marginally screwing up anything.

After the third beach it was already late noon, and Ms. Takaoka gestured them all to come closer.

 

“Now, sea turtles usually rather live in more shallow waters, but they do sometimes go out in open sea too”, she told them.

“We are today going to also check the open sea areas where turtles have previously been seen, to see if there is any difference to this year compared to the past ones. We are going to be back to the land at six like I said in the briefing, so this is going to be a lot faster. Now, find a good place to sit down and enjoy the views for a while.”

 

Riku sat near the bow with Kairi, who handed him a package of peanut butter cookies from her bag. Neither of them felt like talking, so Kairi put on her sunglasses and enjoyed the combination of warm rays and cool wind, while Riku opted in staring at the ocean, nibbling at the cookies.

He should take Sora out to the sea more often. They had gone to the beach yesterday, and Sora had been more than happy about it, despite Riku still not giving him a permission to swim, but Sora had enjoyed the boat ride last week too.

He could go and see Cid later this week and help him with something. He just couldn’t go and borrow his boat without doing anything in return.

 

He did notice that they were getting closer to the island Sora had lived. It was not that far with this boat, as it was much bigger than Cid’s, and as Riku had checked the location from map, he now knew that it was straight across from the mainland, on the other side of a wide fairway.

He was only alarmed when the island appeared in his field of view, and he noticed the boat near it.

 

It was the same boat that had been there at Friday night. Riku could recognise its silhouette from far away, and he only became more sure when they got closer and he saw a smaller boat coming from the island.

He startled a little when their boat put their foghorn on. Kairi quickly took her sunglasses off of her face.

 

“What was that for?” she asked, and sat up on her knees to see over the rail.

 

The smaller boat had changed its course, and it now steered towards them. Riku felt the boat slow down and then stop, and soon the other boat stopped next to them.

There were two men on board of the boat, both dark haired, taller one with a ponytail and shorter man with his hair sleeked back like some kind of old aristocrat or greaser from the old movies. The shorter man spoke up first.

 

“Good afternoon!” he shouted.

“Is something in the matter?”

 

Riku saw Ms. Takaoka and other one of the SPREPs worker (Gillian, if Riku remembered his name right) standing close to the rail, staring down at the men.

 

“We are only curious”, Gillian shouted back.

“Trawlers are not permitted in this area anymore.”

 

Riku glanced up to the bigger boat. It was indeed a trawler, which he had not paid attention to earlier. They were too close to the coastline for trawling to be allowed, and Riku estimated that the boat was big enough to trawl up to over 600 feet. Ms. Takaoka and Gillian were checking in if they needed to alert the coast guard.

The man laughed.

 

“Oh no, we are not here to fish with that, don’t worry”, he said.

“It’s just something we had in storage. I assume you’re from the local university?”

 

“Ethology class, with SPREP”, Ms. Takaoka gestured to Gillian.

 

“Ah, no wonder you came to see what’s up”, the man said, grinning.

“We assure you, that boat has not been in it’s original use for years now. We’re researchers like you. What’s your field?”

 

“We are tagging sea turtles”, Gillian answered.

“It’s nesting season, and this is near one of the open sea areas they live.”

 

“We’ll be careful not to disturb them”, the man saluted at Gillian roughly.

“And it seems like we’re tiny bit off from each other, since we are more interested in marine mammals, so to say.”

 

He laughed again, and Riku felt his skin getting in goose bumps. He got the same, urgent feeling as before, something squeezing in his stomach, telling him that he would want absolutely nothing to do with the men in the boat.

The taller man with the ponytail had started talking on radiophone, and tapped the shorter on his shoulder. They spoke quietly, and then the shorter one shouted at them again.

 

“We are sorry to rush, but we still have work to do today”, he waved his hand to them.

“Have a nice day! And good luck with your turtles!”

 

Then the taller man started the engine again, and they turned around, returning to the bigger boat.

 

Riku tried to breathe.

 

Their boat started again as well, and Kairi sat back down.

 

“Riku?” she asked, concerned.

“Are you alright?”

 

Riku noticed only then that he was squeezing the railing with both of his hands, knuckles white. He quickly let go.

 

“Yeah”, he said, and sat down too, and tried to ignore Kairi’s eyes for the rest of the trip.

 

                                                                                                                               ⋆

 

Riku liked to be in control of his own behaviour, and he had already realised that he had not been in control of it for a week now. And it seemed like was not going to change anytime soon.

They got back to the dock at six fifteen, and when Ms. Takaoka had permitted them to leave, Riku pulled Kairi aside.

 

“Go to my apartment”, he said.

 

“What? Why?” Kairi asked. Riku ignored her, again.

 

“Sora should be home. If he’s not, then he is at Mrs. Papadopoulos, who lives at the end of the hallway in 314, and if he’s not there then he is at Katie’s in 313. Tell him that I will be home little later.”

 

“Riku, what-“

 

“Thank you, I owe you one”, Riku said, before bolting away.

 

He ran the whole way across the city to the smaller docks, praying that Cid would be there. It seemed that Lady Fortuna was on his side, as he saw Cid pulling out nets on the dock when Riku arrived there.

Cid raised his eyebrows at him when Riku stopped to catch his breath.

 

“Did you run a marathon or what?” he asked.

 

“Something like that”, Riku panted.

“I know this is sudden and I will help you in anything you need in the weekend, I promise, but I need to borrow the boat.”

 

“You know you can borrow it anytime you want”, Cid said. Riku could see the suspecting look in his eyes.

“But I feel like I need an explanation.”

 

Riku opened his mouth, trying to come up with something, anything.

 

“We were at the field trip today”, he said hastily.

“And we stopped on one island and I think I dropped something in there, so I’m just going to go and look for it.”

 

Riku did not like lying. Cid did not deserve it, but Riku couldn’t give him the truth, as it was far more unbelievable than the lie he had just told.

 

Cid nodded slowly.

 

“Sure, sure, but I remember your promise”, he said.

 

“Thank you”, Riku breathed. Cid didn’t say anything else when Riku hopped on to the boat and he undid the ropes, but Riku could sense that his lie had not convinced Cid fully.

 

He really hoped he could explain, but right now Riku could not even explain his own actions to himself as he pushed up the gears and set the course towards the island.

 

 

He drove a lot faster than he had when he and Sora had went to the island. The boat bounced against the waves and Riku’s teeth collided together almost painfully more than once, but he did not slow down.

He did not know what he was doing. All of his senses practically screamed at him to stay away, but there was one, almost primal urge that had led him to do what he was currently doing.

 

He had to know what the men were doing. He had to know if there was something in the island and if it had something to do with Sora. It didn’t make sense to Riku that someone suddenly took an interest in empty island with seemingly nothing else than a merman living on it.

And if it wasn’t anything, then good. Riku could go back home, apologise to Kairi and Sora, watch a movie with them while eating late dinner and then do some homework while Sora dozed of on the couch. But Riku knew that if there was even a miniscule possibility that it was something else than a coincidence, his nerves would never leave him alone.

 

He was just going to check if he had missed something.

 

The trawler was not there when Riku anchored the boat on climbed down to the beach. Good. Riku did still not wish to make any closer contact with the men, even if he sounded ridiculously paranoid while admitting that. Riku was not good with people like Kairi, but he thought that he had a strong intuition. His intuition had been the number one factor of him ever meeting Sora (and Sora not dying), so Riku decided to trust it in this time too.

He found the path, and hurriedly made his way to the lighthouse.

 

Riku saw that someone had been in there immediately when he stepped inside.

 

All the furniture and other objects had been removed, and there were now boxes with tarps over them, as well as tarps over one wall. He saw that there were now metallic ladders leading up to the second floor, and a big toolbox next to them on the floor.

Either the lighthouse was being repaired, or someone was searching for something.

 

Riku’s intuition told him that it was not the first option.

 

He looked around a bit, trying to simultaneously hear if someone was coming. There was not much to see in the bigger room anymore, and Riku did not dare to touch any of the boxes, just in case. He decided to see the little room Sora had went in last time, before possibly going up to the second floor.

 

The little room had faced the same fate as the other. It was completely bare, with a box in the corner. The tarp was not pulled over it completely, so Riku felt a bit more courageous. He pulled it up and peeked inside.

 

In the box was all kinds of small things. Seashells, pretty stones, small glass bottles, pieces of metal Riku could not identify. It reminded him of stuff that got washed up to the shore, and when thinking that Sora had probably kept this smaller room as his own, Riku assumed that the things in the box were stuff he had left behind in the lighthouse.

 

Despite that Riku had tried to convince himself that the key was only a key and nothing more, he felt a sudden relief over the fact that they had came to the island on Friday and not during the weekend. Sora's stuff had clearly been searched, too, and the key had been the only thing Sora had wanted to take with him.

  

The relief did not last longer than a second, because right then Riku heard the door to the lighthouse open and someone stepping inside.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little later upload than usually. I have my last exam for the whole year tomorrow, so I've been more concentrated in it more during this week. 
> 
> Congratulations to everyone who graduates soon! I have only one graduate party to attend this year (and I'm trying to fathom the fact that my own graduation was already two years ago...)
> 
> SPREP stands for Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, which is a organisation established by Pacific governments to protect and manage the environmental and natural resources of the Pacific. They do pretty much all kind of stuff regarding the environment, go check them out of you want to know more.


	6. Chapter 6

Everything stopped for a second.

For Riku, that one second felt like a lifetime.

He heard the footsteps coming in, loud and heavy, the old floor creaking under the weight that was put on to it. There were second set of footsteps right behind the first ones, even more heavier, a low voice saying something to someone he couldn’t quite get.

And then after the second all of his senses that had screamed to him earlier to stay away flared back up, and Riku moved quickly and quietly behind the open door, pressing himself close against the wall the best he possibly could and held his breath.

 

“Oh man, this really was an empty shot.”

 

Riku recognised the voice immediately. It was the man from the boat, the shorter one with his hair sleeked back.

The steps came closer, as well as the others. They were heavier, probably belonged to someone bigger.

 

“It’s only been a few days”, other voice said then. A man’s voice as well.

“The order was- “

 

“To turn this whole place upside down, if needed, yeah yeah”, the sleek-hairs voice interrupted.

“That’s what we’re probably going to end up doing, anyways.”

 

They were now directly on the other side of the wall, only couple of steps from the door Riku was hiding behind.

Riku tried to control his breathing through his nose. His heart was jumping in his chest, making his blood rush in his ears. He had known that this was the stupidest idea he had ever had (sticking a merman in a bathtub had not been his brightest idea either, but it had turned out very alright), but now he really understood just how stupid he was.

He had no idea who these men were. The only thing he knew was that they caused him to feel awfully paranoid, which in turn had been the major point of making Riku come to the island. He had to make sure that with the horrible squeezing they made him feel in his stomach, they were not an actual threat to them. To Sora.

And now he was pressed against the wall, hiding behind a door, with two strangers just few steps away from him. Two strangers who were potentially dangerous.

Kairi was so going to kill him.

 

“Say”, the sleek-haired said. Riku could hear him taking steps forward, so he was almost standing in the small threshold of the smaller room. Riku could see his form between the rusty hinges. He leaned away, trying not to make any noise, and pressed his head more firmly against the old, cold stone.

“Do you think we’re going to find something in here?”

 

“Master was sure of it”, the other voice said.

“This place was marked in the Guardians notes.”

 

“It is, it is, and I’m sure that’s for a reason”, sleek-haired said.

“But I think the reason has already left.”

 

The man was now standing directly on the threshold. Riku saw his arm as he gestured inside the room.

 

“See this? We all know someone has lived here, and, we know who, or what it was. And by the looks of it, they have run off. Coincidence, maybe? I think not. Whoever lived in here, had something of our Master’s interest. And I say, we might want to find them.”

 

Riku’s throat constricted.

He hated when his gut-feeling was right. And then he hated that he had ignored every single other feeling he had had that had practically yelled him to not do anything stupid.

So he was in an island, next to two men who were now confirmedly, at least in Riku’s mind, actually dangerous. He was in an island with dangerous men, who wanted to find the one who lived on the island (Sora, they wanted to find Sora, and Riku hated that too), because of God knows what, only a door between them.

Kairi was so, _so_ going to kill him.

 

The man’s form hovered over the threshold. He turned around a little bit, so Riku saw half of his side profile. Thin and sharp features, the sleeked back hair only making them more prominent.

 

“So, rest of us can continue digging this place up. But I am going to look for the little mermaid. Suits me better than sniffing around dusty corners.”

 

If the man would turn even a tiny bit more, he could see Riku. Riku held his breath again, not daring to even press himself closer to the wall, afraid that even the smallest movement would alarm the man. He stayed put, keeping his eyes directly on the man’s face, ready to do whatever he needed to if he was noticed. His heart beat so fast that Riku could barely hear anything else any more than the rapid thumbing inside his head.

Stay calm, he told himself over and over again. You can probably overpower him, if you’re fast and react when he’s still surprised. The man was not much taller than Riku, just by inch or one and a half inch at most. The other man would be a problem, since Riku couldn’t see him and he didn’t know how close to the door the he was. The last thing Riku wanted to happen in this situation was to be trapped inside the small room. And the other man sounded heavier when walking, so Riku assumed that he was also bigger. Yeah, he definitely didn’t want to be cornered by anyone bigger than himself right now.

 

“What about the markings?” the other man asked. The sleek-hair turned around, and for a fraction of second Riku’s heart stopped beating, but the man didn’t seem to see him. He turned around completely, so he was supposedly staring at the man on the bigger room, and Riku couldn’t see him anymore because of the door now blocking his view.

 

“Has Even gotten anything out of them yet?”

 

“Not yet.”

 

“Then he can continue with them and I continue on with my own research, okay? Now let’s grab that box and let’s get going, I don’t want to waste any more time on this humid rock.”

 

The footsteps went away from him, and Riku saw the man’s shadow moving back to the bigger room. He didn’t move when they moved stuff around on the other side of the wall, and he waited pressed against the wall until he heard the door close and a silence fell inside the lighthouse.

 

Riku counted seconds. One, two, three…ten, thirty, a minute. He counted two more minutes before he finally let his breath out and let his rigid posture relax. Maybe he could now be sure that the men were not coming back.

Still very cautiously, Riku stepped out from behind the door, and peeked inside the bigger room. No one, as he had heard, and it didn’t sound like anyone was outside either. Riku just couldn’t make himself to walk normally, and every creak of the floor made him flinch. At least his heartbeat was steadily slowing down, and the rushing in his ears had also faded out.

 

That had been close. Uncomfortably so. Riku shivered and shook his arms slightly to make the feeling go away. He had been stupid, acting on an impulse, just to hypothetically calm his nerves. Hypothetically, yes, because Riku’s nerves had not calmed down at all.

 

The men were looking for Sora. Or, well, they were looking for him now, and Riku didn’t like it one bit. The men had felt suspicious and threatening to him before, and now Riku was certain that they didn’t have any good intentions. They were not any researchers, despite that they had told so to Ms. Takaoka, which was already a big red flag. The even bigger red flag was that they knew about merpeople.

Knowing about merpeople was not a common thing. Riku had only known because his dad had told him, and his dad had only known because Riku’s mom, and his dad’s knowledge on the topic had been exactly that merpeople existed. Nothing more. So where had these guys heard about them? And what was it that they were looking for, if they needed to search this whole place?

 

And why this place? Riku went through the conversation he had heard in his head. The other man had said something about the island being marked in some kind of notes. The Guardians? Had the man said that? Riku had been too overwhelmed to fully concentrate to what the men had talked about, so he wasn’t exactly sure he had heard right.

This whole thing was too much right now. He needed to get out.

 

Riku took few steps towards the door, when he remembered another line from the other man. Something about the markings.

It had sounded like they had already found something in the island, and were trying to figure them out. Riku stopped and turned around. Had he seen anything out of place last time? He had a feeling like he had.

 

“What was it…” Riku murmured, looking around in the room. He was sure he had seen something while standing in this room, when Sora had been searching for the key.

 

The man had said markings. Had he seen any markings? Other than the carved lines on the wall?

Riku’s eyes fixated on the wall covered with tarp.

 

He supposed the men had not yet seen his boat. He should probably just get of the island while he still could, but on the other hand, this could be the only and last opportunity for him to check this. He needed to know if he would have to take Sora, abandon his studies and move away to the other side of the country or if staying inside for a week would be enough.

He was going to just look quickly, and then get the hell out. Riku reached for the tarp and pulled it away from the wall.

 

The crumbling paint was now removed, carefully not to disturb the old wood on top of the stone walls. Riku could now see the lines completely, going up and down in soft curves. Riku stepped back a little bit, to take a better look.

He had been right about the carvings not being writing or anything even close to that. He had previously thought of it being multiple separate lines, but instead there was only one line, bending multiple times close to itself.

It was not writing nor a distinct drawing, but Riku still felt like he had seen something similar to it before. Somewhere he just could not remember.

 

He should really buy a new phone. He could’ve taken a picture of the wall with it, so he could look at it later at home and try to figure it out (it seemed like that was what the men were doing, too), but now he could only try and memorize the line the best he could.

 

Riku almost didn’t notice it, but there was a small, deep mark in one meander of the line. It was in the middle of a sharp point, in between of a long, almost straight part of the line at the height of Riku’s forehead. It was too deep and too precise to be an accident in the carving process, as it looked like it was done with a complete different tool as well.

Did it mean something?

 

Riku took the last look at the wall, before putting the tarp back. Okay, he had now been stupid enough for one day. It was getting really dim inside the lighthouse, which meant it was getting late.

Riku had left presumably at half past six, so he estimated it was now nearing eight, at the least. It would take him another forty-five minutes to get back to the mainland.

 

Kairi would not only kill him, she would definitely murder him.

 

The trawler was not there when Riku got back to his boat, nor was the smaller boat the men had used earlier to get around. The part of the island Riku used to dock his boat was too small for the men’s boat, so they probably docked it somewhere else, and had not seen his because of that. At least Riku hoped that they had not seen it.

Riku was not scared to admit that he checked his surroundings constantly while driving back, in case of someone was following him. The whole idea of the trip had been to calm him down, but it had done the exact opposite.

 

 

It was pitch black when Riku got to the docks, for the exception of a bright yellow light Cid was holding in his hand.

Riku had never seen Cid angry (Cid did swear a lot and he did snarl, but he had never gotten beyond annoyed in Riku’s presence), but as he pulled to the dock and shut down the engine, Riku could see that the man was, at the very least, very close in being absolutely furious.

 

“And where the absolute devil’s pit have you been?” Cid asked him, brows so tightly brought together his eyes almost disappeared completely under them.

“Don’t you know anymore what is an appropriate time to be back? Let me tell you, it’s not in the middle of the night when you can’t even see your own hands! And apparently you have also decided to throw your phone to the ocean, judging from how you were impossible to get a hold of.”

 

Had the situation been any different, Riku would’ve told Cid that he had actually thrown his phone to the ocean. He would’ve even laughed about it, too, but now Riku couldn’t feel further from laughing about anything.

He jumped of the boat and tried to say something in his defence, but nothing worth saying came to his mind. So Riku bowed his head, unable to look Cid to eyes.

 

“I’m sorry”, he only said. He heard Cid huff irritated and he growled words Riku could not quite hear (though it sounded irritated as well, so Riku could guess what it was pretty easily).

There was a couple of seconds of a tense, uncomfortable silence, but then Cid sighed loud and heavy.

 

“Don’t worry me like that, son”, Cid said, placing a hand on Riku’s shoulder.

“When I lend you my stuff, you are my responsibility, no matter how much of an adult you are in the eyes of the law. And I wouldn’t like if something happened to you anyways. You’re a good lad, hope you know that.”

 

Riku swallowed.

 

“I understand”, he said.

“I’m sorry.”

 

“Well, I just hope you don’t do this again”, Cid squeezed Riku’s shoulder a bit.

“Now I gotta call the coast guards and tell them that you are back in one piece, I am surprised that you didn’t cross roads with them on your way.”

 

So Cid had actually called guards on him. Great. Riku wanted to just disappear and pretend that nothing of this never happened. A tight knot formed in his stomach as he tied to ropes, trying to block out Cid’s voice next to him talking to the phone about how everything was alright. Cid really didn’t deserve Riku bothering him this much.

 

“Thank you for borrowing the boat”, Riku said, after fastening the last knot. He took a quick glance on Cid’s face. The man was still looking irritated, but much closer to the normal amount he always did than he had few moments before.

“I think I should go home now.”

 

He wouldn’t be surprised if Kairi had called the police on him at this point. She had probably told Sora about the men (she was perspective like that), and Riku could imagine Sora in turn telling Kairi that they had seen the men before. Riku knew that he had to tell both Sora and Kairi what had happened, and Kairi most likely would not only kill him, but also murder him at that point.

 

“I’m tempted to drive you home”, Cid said.

“But I guess I can trust you to find your way there before the sunrise?”

 

“You can”, Riku said.

“And Sora would probably start looking for me before that.”

 

“The friend of yours?” Riku nodded. Cid hummed, thoughtfully.

“He seemed like a good lad as well, hope he can teach you not to do this again.”

 

“Hope so”, Riku managed to laugh a little, even if it was short and dry.

“He’s most likely waiting for me to get back so…good night, I guess.”

“Good night. I expect you to show your face here in the weekend, and if you don’t, I’m going to find you myself, you hear me?”

 

Riku laughed again, and it was a bit more real than the last. It made the knot in his stomach to loosen up, but not completely.

 

“Of course”, he said.

“I owe you it.”

 

“You owe me nothing, boy, I just want to know that you haven’t disappeared anywhere”, Cid called out over his shoulder.

 

There was a second knot, more like a lump, that formed in Riku’s throat.

 

“Sure”, he called back.

“See you then.”

 

                                                                                                                         ⋆

 

 

If the knot in his stomach had loosened up a little before, it tightened back double as hard when he got closer to his apartment.

 

Kairi would be worried, yes, but would Sora? Riku hoped not. Worried Kairi was enough. But if Kairi was to believe, Sora had worried about him before, and had Kairi been wrong at any point during this whole thing?

Well, time for her to be wrong at least once, Riku thought. Sora was the one who was now in danger, not Riku, so it should be Riku worried about Sora and not the other way around.

Still, the knot only got bigger and more painful the closer Riku got, and he had to stop and just breathe once he got in front of his door.

 

He would’ve probably stayed there for god knows how long, trying to prepare himself to face the fire on the other side of the door, but after five minutes he realised that the longer he stood there, the worse the result would be. Riku took the keys from his pocket, letting his hand hover for few more seconds over the lock.

 

“It’s just like ripping a band-aid off”, Riku said to himself.

“Do it fast and it’ll be over.”

 

He jammed the key into the lock a little too harsh, and pushed the door open.

Riku hardly had time to close the door behind him, and he definitely didn’t have time to get his shoes off and step any further to the apartment, when there was a loud thud and then loud and fast footsteps and something coming towards Riku with an incredible speed.

And then Sora collided with Riku and sent him stumbling backwards and hitting the door, as Sora seized him in to a crushing hug.

 

“Riku!” Sora’s arms were around Riku’s neck, warm, very warm, and Riku couldn’t breathe.

“Where were you? Kairi said she was going to call the police if you didn’t come back soon, because she said the men were back and you just ran off.”

 

So Riku had been correct about Kairi noticing his behaviour and linking it to the men, and Sora had told her about how they had seen them before.

 

“I, um”, Riku started. Sora didn’t seem to be letting go, just keeping his grasp tight around Riku, and Riku suddenly didn’t have energy or willpower to make him let go, so he just looked over Sora’s head.

Kairi was standing next to the kitchen table. Her mouth was pressed on to a thin line and her brows were knit, but Riku could see that she was as much relieved as she was worried or angry.

 

“Sora, let Riku sit down”, Kairi said.

“So he can tell us what happened, okay?”

 

Sora didn’t move for a short moment, but then he very slowly let go of Riku, arms dropping to his sides but staying so close he was practically still touching Riku, not just in a form of a hug anymore (if it even was one, since it had reminded Riku more of a wrestling move or a chokehold than a hug). And he walked so close to Riku the whole way to the table that their arms brushed against each other with every other step. Sora only moved away from him to pick up the chair that he had pushed over to run to Riku.

Very carefully Riku looked at Sora’s face, only to notice that Sora was looking back, with the same expression he had had when they visited Kairi.

 

Ah. So Sora was worried. The knot in Riku’s stomach got bigger again, but at the same time, a weird wave of warmness made itself known right inside Riku’s ribcage.

But Riku couldn’t focus on it now. Both Sora and Kairi were looking at him, waiting.

 

“Sora already told you about the men?” he asked Kairi, who nodded.

“Alright. So, um. Don’t get angry.”

 

“It depends”, Kairi said.

“I might if you have done something stupid, and it does sound like you have.”

 

 

 

Kairi did, indeed, get angry.

She didn’t yell or interrupt Riku as he told what had happened, but Riku could see how her back straightened and posture got more stiff the further his story went. Riku figured the only reason she didn’t say anything was because of other things Riku said had happened on the island.

 

“This is not good”, Kairi said, after Riku finished. She leaned back on her chair.

“You two must be careful now.”

 

“We will”, Riku answered.

“Although I highly doubt they even know what Sora looks like, so we should be fine.”

 

“I sure hope they don’t”, Kairi sighed.

 

“We’ll just have to start walking around wearing sunglasses”, Riku said.

“Since Sora’s eyes are the only thing that would tell them he’s a merman, right, Sora?”

 

Sora had gone awfully quiet, and he was just sitting still on his chair, legs hoisted up and knees drawn close to his chest. His eyes were fixated on the surface of the table, and Riku had to tap him on the arm to get his attention.

 

“Hm?” Sora snapped his head up.

“Sorry, did you say something?”

 

He tried to smile, but it didn’t really come out right, looking more like just baring teeth than actually smiling. He gave up when both Riku and Kairi gave him unimpressed look.

 

“You said they talked about someone called “the Guardian”?” Riku nodded as an answer to Sora’s question.

“I just… I feel like I have heard someone mentioning them before, but I just can’t remember who or when.”

 

“Maybe it was one of your friends?” Riku asked. Sora had said before that the other merpeople around didn’t know anything about how Sora got to the island in the first place, but this Guardian clearly had something to do with the merpeople. Riku couldn’t think of anyone else who could’ve said something about the Guardian than the other merpeople.

 

“I don’t know, might’ve been so”, Sora answered, but there was a slight hesitation. It bothered Riku for some reason. Sora hadn’t really talked about his friends in the first place, only that they had taken care of him and that they were all away right now.

 

“Do you know where they’ve gone?” Riku asked.

“We could look for them. They might want to know if something is going on regarding the merpeople.”

 

Sora shook his head.

 

“No, sorry”, he said.

“They don’t really tell me what they are doing, you know? They come and go all the time with their own stuff. It’s alright, I can take care of myself.”

 

“I know, but…” Sora gave him a solemn look, and Riku chose not to push the topic any further.

 

“But what could they be after?” Kairi wondered, returning to the previous subject.

"You have lived on the island for years, have you ever seen anything abnormal or otherwise outstanding there?”

 

“Not really”, Sora said.

“The whole island is really just rocks and trees, and I have been to every corner of it. I would’ve noticed if there was something weird in there.”

 

“What about the key?” Kairi asked.

 

Sora crunched his nose, thinking.

 

“Well, it is kinda weird, I guess”, he said.

“But why would they want it? It’s just a key, it has never done anything, and it doesn’t fit to any lock on the island.”

 

“It’s just a thought”, Kairi said.

“I can be nothing. Just don’t go around waving it on people’s faces, okay?”

 

“Okay”, Sora smiled.

“It’s our secret, then.”

 

“What about the markings?” Riku asked in turn. Sora cocked his head to the left.

 

“Markings?” he repeated.

 

“Yeah, those carvings on the wall. I noticed them when we visited the island together for the first time, but I forgot to ask you about them”, Riku explained.

“They were on the one wall, one long line that goes up and down. Have you never noticed it before?”

 

“No?” Sora sounded unsure.

“I mean, I did notice the carvings I suppose, but I didn’t see that they were actually something. I was never too keen to just sit and stare at the walls, even if I wasn’t really allowed to leave the island and had nothing else to do.”

 

“What?” now Riku was really bothered, especially when an expression that clearly indicated he had said too much crossed Sora’s features.

 

“So what was it? The markings”, Sora asked hastily.

“Was it like a picture or something?”

 

Riku really didn’t want to change the subject, but he was not in the mood of possibly arguing, either, so he let Sora distract him. For now.

 

“I’m not sure”, Riku answered.

“It looked like it was some kind of a picture, but I couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be. And it sounded like they didn’t, either.”

 

“Didn’t you take a picture?” Kairi asked.

 

“I don’t have a phone”, Riku explained.

“It broke like a week ago, remember? That’s why I didn’t answer in that morning I overslept and you came here to wake me up.”

 

“Oh, right”, Kairi said, crossing her arms.

“Are you planning on buying a new one? You can’t just go on to some risky business without a phone.”

 

“I don’t really have money for it”, Riku admitted, quickly glancing at Sora from the corner of his eye.

“As I had to repair my lock, since _someone_ \- “

 

“I said I’m sorry already!” Sora pouted.

“And I have been very good to your door since then, we’re basically best friends and it has forgiven me, so can you please drop it?”

 

“Well, if you are in such good terms with my door, then I guess I can let it be”, Riku answered. Sora had gone faintly red from his ears, and with the pouting, he looked even more like a displeased kid than ever before. A chuckle escaped from Riku’s mouth, making Sora purse his lips harder.

“Sorry, sorry.” Sora huffed and turned his face away from Riku, trying to look offended, but Riku could see that he was having a hard time to maintain the expression. The knot and the lump inside Riku were at least starting to dissolve, and he was thankful for that. He figured they would’ve been gone a lot faster, if Sora’s remarks regarding his time on the island weren’t bothering him.

 

Kairi found her smile again, and she giggled a little. Riku only then realised how serious she had been this whole time, too.

 

“I’m going to buy you a new one, then”, she said.

“Don’t argue with me, I have the money for it. And I am also going to take Sora shopping for some new clothes on the weekend, he can’t just wear your old shirts and the same pair of shorts without any underwear for days.”

 

Riku didn't argue with her. Arguing with Kairi only ever ended in her winning.

 

“Sure, take him”, he said instead.

“It’s kinda gross, now that you say it.”

 

“Hey!” they both laugh at Sora, who began to laugh too very quickly. The tension that had been there ever since Riku got back (and possibly before it) was almost gone, Kairi’s posture was relaxed again, Sora was smiling and Riku could breathe more freely.

 

“So, what are we going to do?” Sora asked.

“Are we going to just let them dig around on the island?”

 

“Well, you live here now”, Kairi said.

“And I think it’s for the best that you just try to stay as far as possible from them.” Both Sora and Riku nod in agreement, Riku a little bit more strongly than Sora.

 

                                                                                                                            ⋆

 

 

Kairi leaved soon after that. Riku was standing with her by the door as she put on her boots, while Sora had excused himself to the bathroom.

 

“Should you call a taxi?” Riku asked. It’s late and dark outside, and even if Kairi is capable of defending herself and the city is relatively calm and safe, he still worries. The worst case-thinking was a big part of him, after all.

 

“Nah, I don’t have strange and threatening men looking for me, so I’m fine”, Kairi answered. She grinned, and Riku grins back, if a little faintly. He saw Kairi’s eyes take a look at the closed bathroom door.

“He got really worried about you, you know?”

 

Ah, there the knot was again.

 

“I noticed”, Riku answered.

“He isn’t usually…that touchy.”

 

It was kinda weird. Sora was so happy, and he seemed to like people, but he had never touched Riku, apart from very quick and light touches on his arms or hands. And on many cases, it had been Riku initiating the touch (and Riku didn’t do that very easily either). Riku had kind of…assumed that Sora would be more carefree about touching, too.

 

Kairi hummed, solemnly.

 

“Talk to him?” she asked.

“I think we both noticed that there’s something that isn’t quite right.”

 

“If he let’s me”, Riku answered. Kairi hugged her, briefly but firmly, before reaching for the door handle.

 

“See you tomorrow”, she said.

“And please, please be careful.”

 

“I will”, Riku smiled at her, hoping that it would be reassuring.

“See you tomorrow. Good night.”

 

“Good night”, Kairi pushed the handle down, before raising her voice a bit.

“Good night Sora!”

 

“Good night!” came a slightly muffled yell from the bathroom. Kairi snickered, and then she pushed the door open, and with a last wave of hand, she was out.

 

The apartment fell silent. Riku lingered by the door for a few seconds, before slowly returning to the kitchen. He felt odd, like the rest of the day had not truly even happened, and he had only now jumped in to actually living it again.

 

Sora emerged from the bathroom couple of minutes later, and Riku had just stood by the counter that whole time.

 

“So, dinner?” Sora plastered a smile on his face.

“Kairi made some while we were waiting for you. We ate already, but the rest is in the fridge.”

 

“Okay”, Riku said, making himself move to get a plate and the utensils.

“You wanna watch something with me while I eat?”

 

Dinner while watching a movie or pretty much anything had very fast become their new evening routine (by the end of the movie Sora was usually so tired that Riku had to almost walk him to the bathroom to brush his teeth), and damn did Riku need it today.

 

“Sure!” Sora jumped to the couch, grabbing the remote control. He flicked through channels while Riku heated up his food, and he decided to stay on the AMC as Riku sat down next to him.

 

Sora seemed to be much more invested in the movie than Riku, who could barely keep his eyes on the screen at all. He kept glancing at Sora’s side profile (he hoped that Sora didn’t notice), and when he put his plate down on the coffee table, Riku decided to take the bull by the horns.

 

“Can I ask you something?” he turned to look at Sora properly. Sora removed his eyes from the TV, and he turned to look at Riku as well.

 

“Yes?” he said, and Riku hoped that this was going to go well.

 

“How are these…friends of yours?” Riku asked, and he flinched when he saw Sora tense up immediately. Sora turned his gaze away from Riku, opened his mouth, but then closed it.

 

“They…” he finally said.

“They’re okay. They have pretty much taken care of me ever since I got here, like they brought me food and clothes and all that.”

 

“Were they the ones who told you not to leave the island?”

 

“Yeah. They always said that I was too young to be on my own, and they couldn’t take me with them”, Sora answered.

“Like if I ever saw humans they would see my eyes and know that I wasn’t one of them, and something horrible could happen.”

 

Now Riku was really, really bothered.

 

“Humans don’t know anything about merpeople”, he said.

“We – they honestly think that merpeople are just children’s tales and they would never ever be able to tell that you’re not humans from your eyes.”

 

If Sora’s friends (Riku hesitated now to even call them that, but he didn’t have any other name for them) were older than Sora, they would’ve known that. It was clear now that merpeople didn’t actually live in the ocean, and Sora had lived previously on the land too, probably in the city, in a modern house, so the others would’ve known that humans knew nothing about merpeople. Which could only mean that…

 

“I know now”, Sora said. He looked sad, and Riku realised he hated it.

“But why would they lie to me about it? I don’t understand.”

 

“I don’t understand either”, Riku said.

“But I think it has something to do with all of this what’s going on now.”

 

It had to be. This whole thing, Sora not remembering anything, being told not to leave the island, the island itself, the men who were looking for something – this whole thing was too big and too coincident to be just a coincidence.

Something was going on, and Riku realised that he should probably be at least scared. And he was, kind of. Not for himself, but for Sora.

 

Sora slumped on the couch. He drew his knees close to his chest again and hugged them tightly.

 

“But they are still my friends”, he said, turning back to the TV.

 

Sora put his arm over his mouth, but Riku heard him taking in a small, quivering breath, and Riku felt like he was the biggest asshole in the world if he didn’t do something.

 

“Hey”, he said, and when Sora looked at him, he opened his arms slightly.

“I’m not very good at this, but…can I hug you?”

 

If the knot in his stomach had almost disappeared earlier, it was now back with full force. Because Sora’s eyes widened, and he looked at Riku like Riku was promising him the Moon and not just a hug.

 

“…okay”, Sora moved closer, hesitantly at first (like he hadn’t almost tackled Riku earlier that evening), and he pressed himself against Riku’s chest so lightly that Riku didn’t almost feel him there. Suddenly Sora was so small, too small, and Riku was almost afraid to wrap his arms around him. He could only relax marginally when Sora’s arms finally moved to wrap themselves around Riku’s middle as well.

 

They stayed like that for a while, not really moving, apart from Riku’s thumb drawing small circles on Sora’s back. Then Sora let out a breath.

 

“I don’t think you’re bad at this”, he said.

“No one’s ever hugged me like this, and it feels good, so it can’t be bad.”

 

The knot was so painful in his stomach, that Riku was sure it was actually physical and not just something his mind made up.

 

“Your friends never hugged you?” he asked.

 

“Not like this”, Sora answered.

 

Riku had not been close to his aunt or to her husband, at least not as close he would’ve wanted, but they had still comforted him with same kind of physical contact they had given to their own children. They had held him close when Riku had cried after his dad during the nights right after the moving, they had stroked his hair when he had been ill, and they had carefully bandaged every single wound he had gotten while playing outside with his cousins.

 

Riku was nothing like Sora, but Riku had still needed all that attention given to him. The mere thought of Sora, bright and warm and sunny Sora not getting any of it made Riku feel like choking.

 

“They are not very good friends, if you ask me”, he said. Sora made a noise against his shirt Riku couldn’t quite distinguish if it was a laugh or a sob. Riku hoped it was a laugh.

 

“It’s a good thing I have you, then”, Sora said, and the weird warmness inside Riku’s ribcage swelled up again, stronger this time. There was so much going on inside him at that moment, Riku didn’t know what he was supposed to feel.

 

“If you say so”, he said. Sora made the sound again, and Riku felt him pressing up closer to his chest.

 

If he hugged Sora tighter, it was no one else’s business than his.

 

 

                                                                                                                                 ⋆

 

So many things had changed during the last week, that neither Riku nor Kairi were surprised when Riku sat next to Kairi in the topography class at 8 a.m.

 

“Morning”, Kairi said, as Riku searched for his notebook and pen.

“Was Sora still sleeping?”

 

“Of course”, Riku answered.

“I hope so, at least. I don’t think neither of us had a very good night.”

 

They had ended up staying on the couch for two more hours, more or less still in hug, until the movie neither of them were really watching had ended and Sora had fallen asleep, head resting on Riku’s shoulder. Riku had had hard time getting up from the couch and climbing in his own bed, and he had just stayed there for another hour before very carefully moving Sora off of him. He had also had very hard time also falling asleep, and he had heard how Sora, who usually slept like a log through the whole night, had gotten up couple of times and walked around, or tossed around on the couch before supposedly falling asleep again.

 

Riku regretted ever asking about Sora’s life, as it only seemed to cause him to feel bad.

 

Not that Riku was sure Sora would’ve been any happier if he had never asked him anything.

 

“Oh”, Kairi said.

“So you talked with him. About his…friends?”

 

So Kairi was hesitant to call them Sora’s friends as well. Riku dragged his hand over his face and nodded.

 

“A little”, he said.

“Before it got too much. Pretty much he said that they had told him horror stories about humans and tried to make him not to leave the island.”

 

Riku wondered how many times it had been Sora whistling him back during the nights. Sora did leave the island, since he had been to the beach and not to the island on the night Riku had found him, and it made sense for Riku that Sora only left the island during night-time. And it would also explain why Sora had never before gotten close to him, even when Riku had only communicated with him through merpeople’s own language and Sora knew merpeople were capable of having legs.  Maybe he had thought Riku was some kind of trick to get to him.

Riku couldn’t decide if he was more sad or angry. What kind of people lied to a child about something like that, isolated him from the world and then didn’t even _hug_ him?

 

“Did Sora tell you who they actually are?” Kairi asked.

 

“No, I decided not to ask any more questions”, Riku answered.

“And I think Sora doesn’t actually know much about them, anyways.”

 

Kairi bit her lower lip, and nodded.

 

“I thought about this yesterday when I got home”, she said.

“The thing is…those people who Sora calls him his ‘friends’ are not his actual family. And to me, it seems like they do know something about how Sora got here, even if they haven’t told him anything.”

 

“I figured the same.”

 

“And he knows about lots of human stuff his ‘friends’ have not told him about, so he believes he has lived on a house before. And I do believe so, too. There’s something seriously wrong with this, Riku.”

 

More students came in to the class, so Kairi leaned closer to Riku.

 

“I’ve decided to search for Sora”, she told him.

“He had to come from _somewhere._ What if there’s someone who misses him, like parents or other family members? Someone who doesn’t know where he is because he has been on that little island for so long and has been told not to leave? And Sora can’t miss them because he doesn’t remember them.”

 

“So you’re gonna go through like a list of missing people or what?”

 

Kairi nodded.

“We know his first name, so that helps a little, since Sora said that he actually remembers it to be his name, and it’s not something someone else has told him.”

 

“But it has been _years_ ”, Riku said.

“And we don’t know where he’s actually even from.”

 

“I know, but we have to start from somewhere”, Kairi sighed.

“He deserves so much better than this.”

 

“He does”, Riku agreed.

“…Kairi?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“I know we have talked about this earlier, but…you know I’m bad with people. And I think it’s still a bit weird that I –“

 

“Oh don’t even finish that sentence, Riku”, Kairi said firmly.

“It’s not weird that you like Sora. You don’t have to have any reason to like someone, you know?”

 

“Not even when I have known him for a week and I wanted so badly to keep him safe that I put myself in danger just to make sure he wouldn’t be in any danger?” Riku asked.

 

Or when he had felt the weird warmness in his ribcage over the fact that Sora had been worried about him, even when Riku thought it had been inappropriate to feel that kind of warmness over someone worrying because of him? Or when he had had so much difficulty to get up and leave Sora sleeping alone on the couch?

 

Riku didn’t say those out loud, but the way Kairi looked at him told him that she somehow still knew.

 

“It’s not weird”, she repeated.

“Not in any situation. You think too much, Riku. Just enjoy the opportunities life gives you without second questioning everything. Sometimes some people are just meant to be together, and that’s it. Life can be that simple.”

 

Riku opened his mouth, but Kairi was faster. She raised her hand and pressed her palm against Riku’s mouth, preventing him from saying anything.

 

“Stop thinking”, she said.

“And just follow your heart. Understood?”

 

She didn’t remove her hand until Riku nodded. Right then Mr. Avelino walked in to the classroom and started the lesson. 

 

Riku tried to concentrate. Despite him telling Kairi that he would look up things they went through the class online, he hadn’t really done that in a while now. Topography wasn’t something he was terribly interested in, so he always kind of forgot about it until the last minute. He still tried, but it was eight in the morning, and even if Riku was nowhere near as tired as he had been before on morning classes, he hadn’t had too much sleep last night. And on top of that, there was still much going on in his head.

 

Sora had been curled up on the couch in a tight ball, head and legs tucked close to his torso, and instead of being on it’s usual place on the coffee table, the key had been in Sora’s hand in a tight grip, even when he was in sleep.

Riku had sworn in advance that if the key turned out to be what the men were after, he was going to take the damn thing and throw it to the deepest pit of the ocean, where not even the god of the sea himself would be able to retrieve it.

 

And then there were the markings. Every time Riku had closed his eyes last night, if he had not seen Sora’s big and blue eyes full of sadness, he had seen flashes of the carvings on the wall. It was like his brain was trying to desperately figure out where he had seen something similar before.

 

Think about it later, Riku commanded himself. Listen to Mr. Avelino now…and try to figure out what the hell he is talking about. You need to actually pass this course.

Riku blinked and focused his eyes on the screen. Right now Mr. Avelino had some kind of false colour-image taken by satellite on the display, and Riku quickly realised that he had most likely zoned out for longer than he had thought.

 

“- and the lighter colour indicates for the river having formed a delta over to it’s ending right at the coastline. Now deltas can be classified by determining the main control of deposition, and other main factors are the landscape position and…hold on a second, I have to find the right picture…old deltas found inland are most likely formed during the glacial period, as we can see right here –“

 

Okay, maybe it wasn’t just Riku zoning out. He had forgotten how inconsistent Mr. Avelino actually was while teaching, which might’ve been the other major reason for him to stop coming to classes altogether.

 

Riku was about to zone out again for the rest of the class, but then Mr. Avelino changed the picture again, and something clicked to the right place inside Riku’s head.

 

“This is right here outside the city. You can see the two major deltas right here on the outlet. It’s quite a sight, if you have time for a little trip, go and see them by yourself, you can actually climb to the ledge as well. Just be careful. Now here we can also –“

The picture was a satellite image, again, of a jagged coastline. One big, rocky ledge broke the line violently, and its shape was made even more prominent by two, big smooth areas on the both sides of it.

Riku hadn’t been able to take his time and actually memorize what the line on the wall looked like, but the hazy image he had in his head fit perfectly on the coastline of the picture right in front of him.

The deep mark had been in the middle of a sharp point, right were the point of the ledge was. Riku nudged Kairi lightly.

 

“I figured it out”, he whispered.

“The markings.”

 

Kairi looked confused, but she was smart, and Riku could see from her face that she understood when Riku discreetly pointed at the picture on the screen.

 

“Are you sure?” she whispered back.

 

“Pretty sure”, Riku answered.

“I could go and take a look.”

 

Kairi looked both frustrated and disappointed.

 

“Riku…” she said.

“Didn’t we talk about this yesterday?”

 

“If the men have figured it out, too, I’m going to turn right back”, Riku promised.

 

This was all part of something bigger. Riku had figured out that much. And that it had something to do with Sora. And that was enough for Riku to try to figure it out.

 

“You said yourself that I should follow my heart like forty-five minutes ago. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

 

Kairi rested her forehead on her hand for a moment, and Riku could see her mouth moving as she mumbled something he could not hear.

 

“Fine, fine”, she finally whispered louder.

“ _We_ are going to check it out. You are not going to leave me and Sora behind again.”

 

“It’s not like I even can now”, Riku said, and Kairi let out a deep sigh.

 

                                                                                                                                   ⋆

                  

 

The ledge was nearly two-mile hike away from the main road. They had taken the first bus of the morning that went that way and hopped off near the start of the trail the lead to the ledge.

 

They didn’t talk much during the walk. Sora was still sleepy, despite being able to move his legs in steady pace, and Riku really just didn’t feel like talking.

 

He was forced to do so as Kairi stepped closer to him when they neared the end of the trail.

 

“What do you think we’re going to find in here?” she asked him in low voice.

 

“I don’t know”, Riku answered.

“Maybe nothing. It’s not like I actually know the markings even meant this place. We are just going to take a look and see if there is anything.”

 

Kairi only nodded, and while she didn’t complain, Riku could see from her demeanour that she did not like them coming over here.

 

Riku understood her. He really did. But he was also too determined to get to the bottom of this whole mess, and when Riku glanced over to Sora, who was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, the determination only burned stronger.

He was going to figure out what was going on, and then make sure that whatever it was, it would not make Sora sad ever again.

 

The trail ended right at the base of the ledge. The view over to the sea was incredible, with sun rising and heating up the air and the water, and the sight seemed to wake even Sora up.

 

“So!” he said, bouncing on his feet.

“Where next?”

 

Riku looked around. There wasn’t much on the ledge itself, it was just a large piece of rock protruding from the coastline, but the mark had still been on top of it on the wall. Riku stepped closer to the edge.

 

The drop down to the water was long, alongside of a rocky wall. The rocks were bare and evenly dark grey, making it hard to see any possible differences in the terrain.

At that point Riku should’ve probably been discouraged, but he could hear the waves hitting against the rocks all the way up where they were standing.

 

 _There is something_ , a gentle whisper went through his head.

_There is something, look harder and you will see it._

 

Sora also stepped closer then, standing beside Riku and scouring through the rocks as well. He didn’t say anything, only searched something with his eyes with concentrated expression on his face.

Then he suddenly pointed out with his finger.

 

“Does that look like a path to you two?” he asked. Riku followed where he was pointing with his gaze.

 

Few feet left to the ledge a narrow, path-like trail dropped down between the rocks, making it’s way beneath the ledge like a stony staircase.

 

Beneath the ledge, then. Not on top of it.

 

Riku took a deep breath, before turning to look at Sora and Kairi.

 

“Right, then”, he said.

“Should we go and take a look?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Riku discovers Feelings. And also the chapter where I didn't give shit about anything, because who can guess who here got herself sick on the first week of summer break? This bich. I wrote like 6000 words in slight fever, slept over night and read it again and found out that half of it was pretty much incoherent toddler-talk, so I rewrote this in like a day. So. 
> 
> I like to think this being more like a transition chapter to the second part of the story (a.k.a to the adventure zone) where we might get exposition about something else than Riku being anxious about everything.
> 
> (Kairi ships it pass it on)
> 
> Also, there won't be a chapter next week, I'm out of country for a few days without my laptop or a proper internet, so you get to keep a break after this chapter. We'll be back on week after that again with some cave raiding.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: I'm going to get this done by the weekend  
> The chapter: lmao you thought
> 
> Sorry for the wait! I got home from the trip last week, and as usual, I had this very intense travelling fatigue, and I had to reset my brain before getting back to this. And I had to do a lot of resetting, because when I started writing again and I had already written like a page or so, I noticed that the text looked really weird, and it took me a good moment to realise that I had used Swedish grammar instead of English (I was at Stockholm and Swedish is my second language, so my brain had just switched languages completely, and I had to pretty much scream ENGLISH GRAMMAR ENGLISH GRAMMAR for a couple of days after getting back :D)
> 
> Now, without further ado, welcome back and let's go!

Even if the trail down was supposed to be a path, it was hard to get down.

 

The stones that looked like stairs were narrow and crooked, and early morning rain hade made them slippery. Riku was doing relatively well with his boots, and Kairi had put on her hiking shoes as well, but Sora was having the worse time of them all. He still didn’t own any other shoes than the yellow crocs Cid had given him, and they were not suitable for climbing wet rocks at all.

 

“Should I carry you down?” Riku asked, when he stopped Sora from falling down head first for at least tenth time in the last couple of minutes. They had very quickly opted that it was the best if Sora was in the middle of them, so either Kairi or Riku would catch him if needed.

 

Sora shook his head.

 

“And then you trip or something and send us both falling in our deaths?” he said.

“It’s good, I can do this.”

 

“Are you sure?” Riku asked, but the stern look Sora send him made him not to insist any more.

“Okay, okay, whatever you want. But the offer still stands.”

 

Riku was pretty sure he saw Kairi rolling her eyes at him, but when he looked up at her, she only smiled sweetly.

 

Despite them moving very carefully, they were already halfway to the rocky shoreline below them. Riku was just about to continue, when Sora grabbed him by his shoulder.

 

“What is it- what are you doing?”

 

“These shoes suck”, Sora said. He kicked his crocs of while using Riku as a support, and then took them to his other hand.

“There! Much better.”

 

“How?” Riku asked. Sora didn’t answer to him. Instead he took a long step to get around Riku, and then started to climb down so fast it made Riku feel physically ill.

“Hey! Slow down!”

 

“It’s okay!” Sora shouted over his shoulder.

“I’m used to this! C’mon!”

 

And then he was going again. Riku tried not to look when Sora jumped over couple of steps, which made his stomach lurch dangerously, but what else could he do?

 

Kairi stepped closer to him, and wrapped her fingers around Riku’s wrist.

 

“I don’t think he owned any shoes while living on the island”, she said.

“And didn’t you say that it was very rocky?”

 

“Yeah, but”, Riku swallowed.

“Still. Sora, slow down a bit!”

 

Thankfully Sora did stop, and he waited for them to reach him (while bouncing very impatiently and for the love of God, couldn’t he stay still for a one second?).

 

And Sora just grinned at Riku like he hadn’t just been inches from tripping and cracking his skull at least fifteen times during the thirty seconds or so he had practically leaped down the path.

 

“Have you always been this pale?” he asked Riku innocently.

“You go out enough, does it come with the hair?”

 

Kairi snorted obnoxiously behind him, and Riku ignored both her and Sora’s comment in favour of glowering at Sora, who didn’t seem to be (to Riku’s slight annoyance) phased about Riku’s expression at all.

 

“Could you at least try to not to get yourself hurt?” he asked Sora.

“Or like, not to try and give me a heart attack?”

 

“Is there something wrong with your heart?” Sora asked, tone light and posture tilted forward.

“You should be careful, then. I am sure that hiding behind a door from the bad guys doesn’t do any good.”

 

Riku blinked. He wasn’t glaring anymore, but Sora was still staring at him, face relaxed and lips turned upwards, but there was that something in his eyes Riku had not been able to properly recognize before.

He was starting to get a feeling what is was, though.

 

There was a sharp sting in Riku’s chest, but he supposed he kind of deserved it. Riku sighed, and pushed his hair back from his face.

 

“I suppose not”, he muttered.

“Just be careful?”

 

“Yeah, yeah”, Sora grinned at him, and Riku felt relief in his stomach when he noticed that the look from Sora’s eyes was gone.

“I said I am used to this already.”

 

“I know”, Riku said, but Sora didn’t seem to be listening anymore. He had turned around again and continued his way down, letting Riku and Kairi to catch up.

 

“Do you want me to say anything?” Kairi asked. Riku could hear that she had a lot to say, and he was sure he actually already knew all of it.

 

“Not now”, he told her. Kairi hummed, more to herself, and they continued their climbing as well.

 

Riku knew he was a hypocrite. He knew he always thought too much and worried too much. He knew Kairi often worried about him, but she wasn’t really confrontational about it (she didn’t need to be, to be honest). He hadn’t known Sora for long, but Riku had already encountered his worry too.

And now Riku had a feeling that he had crossed some kind of line Sora had set. Judging from Kairi’s tone, she thought so too, and even though Riku appreciated her words of wisdom, he didn’t need them right now. They could go over it later and Riku would agree with everything she would say, but right now they were getting close to the lower end of the trail and Riku was trying not to watch when Sora jumped over three steps at once.

 

Riku was ridiculously relieved when they finally got down to the shoreline. Sora was already there, stuffing his crocs in his backpack while waiting for them. He did seem to be standing more confidently without shoes on the rocky surface, and Riku felt seriously stupid. Of course Sora was okay. He had been living on that damned island for ten years, of course he was used to this.

 

They were standing on what was more like a barrier, with the actual shoreline a little lower, formed in a gently sloping sand. The waves washed over it harsh and crashed to the barrier, making salty drops rain on Riku’s shoes. There was a lot of sand around the barrier, which Riku figured were the two big deltas Mr. Avelino had talked about (he had actually caught that much from the lesson), but the shallow imprints left by flowing water were all empty and starting to wash away.

Kairi looked down at their feet.

 

“The rocks are round”, she said.

“It’s not rainy season, so the rivers are dry. Looks like the water is all the way down here.”

 

That sounded about right, Riku mused in his mind. The hardest rain season had already passed few months ago, just to be substituted by the hot and humid weather. Riku was pretty sure it had something to do with the movement of Sun’s zenith and the horse-latitudes (the name had stuck in Riku’s head because seriously, what was up with that), which did mean that the two rivers that flowed to the ocean near the cliff had considerably less water in them than during the winter. Riku was like ninety-percent sure of that. He had actually listened in the basics of climate systems-course (unlike in topography) but it had been…some time already since it.

 

“Well, good for us then”, he said.

“I mean I suppose it’s a good thing, since we can actually stand here instead of this place being submerged completely.”

 

“I hope so”, Kairi said.

“It’s a bad thing if we’d need the water, for some reason. Then this would have to wait for another half a year.”

 

“I’m sure it’s fine”, Sora said.

“And hey, if it’s a wait for us, then it’s a wait for anyone else, too.”

 

That eased Riku’s nerves a bit, but not much. For him, waiting potentially for months for something to happen would probably drive him insane.

 

_You’ll find it,_ the wave crashing against the barrier whispered.

_You’ll find it, you’ll find it._

 

If the past week of Riku’s life hadn’t been so weird, he would’ve seriously thought he was going crazy.

 

The thing was, merpeople were normal to him. As a concept a bit weird, yes, but normal (Riku had had years to get used to the fact that he himself was not completely human). The little things he hadn’t known about before were what had thrown him of guard. Sora being capable of going back and forth between having tail and legs had been the worst, but Riku had gotten used to it rather quickly. Him actually liking Sora’s company followed up close second, only because it was weird just for Riku and not to people as a whole.

And Riku knew that hearing voices was definitely something that was considered weird to people as a whole.

 

He was honestly surprised over the fact that he was not panicking. He should be, by any means, but the voice whispering just felt like a comfortable jacket someone had put on his shoulders, making him pleasantly warm instead of disgustingly hot and sweaty despite the rapidly warming morning.

 

_You’ll find it, you’ll find it_ , the whispers continued.

 

“Find what?” Riku asked, and realised a little late that he had said it out loud. He looked over at Kairi, who was, like he had suspected, raising her eyebrows at him.

 

“Is something wrong?” she asked, taking a step closer. Riku hurriedly shook his head.

 

“No, no, everything is fine”, he said quickly.

“I was just wondering what we could find from here.”

 

Kairi was already starting to bring her brows down to a frown (Riku didn’t blame her; even if she was usually completely down with everything Riku told her, he seriously doubted that Kairi would take hearing voices lightly), when Sora stepped in.

 

“Well, if we want to find something, we have to actually look for it”, he said, flashing them a grin.

“We don’t want to be here for the whole day, do we? It gets really hot really fast, and then Riku will start complaining about being sweaty!”

 

“I won’t”, Riku huffed.

“If someone here starts complaining first, it’s you, since you’ll miss your midday nap.”

 

“Hey, naps are important! They keep your mind sharp!”

 

“Oh, do they? Funny, because I’m not really seeing the results.”

 

“Was that an insult?” Sora squinted his eyes at Riku, and Riku couldn’t help but chuckle at his expression.

 

“A mere statement”, he said, and ruffled Sora’s hair. Sora pouted, but he didn’t move away.

 

“Boys”, Kairi sighed, but Riku could hear that she was amused.

“I’m sure this won’t take too long, so neither of you will get to complain.”

 

Riku turned his head to look around. The area under the cliff wasn’t too big, but it didn’t look like it was easy to move around either; behind them on the other side of the barrier were huge boulders standing against the base of the cliff and piles of smaller rocks with only small spaces between them. They were most likely big enough for them to fit through, but Riku couldn’t help but to be a little worried. He guessed it was in human nature to be wary of dark and confined places.

 

The waves hitting against the barrier sounded soothing.

 

_Don’t worry_ , it said, pulling the imaginary jacket tighter around Riku.

_You’ll find it, you’ll find it. Follow the water, follow the water._

 

Regardless of the comfort, what Riku was now was confused.

 

Follow the water? He looked down at the waves, coming against the barrier and drawing back to the ocean, but they didn’t say anything else.

 

“Riku, let’s go”, Kairi said next to him.

“Sora’s already going.”

 

True to her words, when Riku lifted his eyes to where Sora had been standing before, he saw that the younger man was already several feet away, climbing over a bile of rocks laying in his way, backpack dangerously sliding over his left shoulder. Good thing Riku had packed all actually valuable things in his own backpack and left Sora only carrying snacks and water bottles.

Riku rolled his eyes.

 

“Say something before dashing off”, he grumbled. Kairi laughed behind him, and Riku could swear even the waves were laughing, soft noise gentle in Riku’s ears.

Great. Even the ocean was making fun of him. Riku purposely ignored both of them.

 

                                                                                                                    ⋆

 

The morning was really, really warming rapidly.

 

The shadow of the cliff and the wind blowing from the open sea to the coast helped quite a bit, but it didn’t change the fact that they were currently living the hottest month of the year and Riku could feel the warmness starting to creep on his skin.

 

Manoeuvring over and around the rocks and boulders didn’t help at all. Riku’s shirt was already sticking to his back under the backpack, and he really didn’t want to know how his socks were going to smell at the end of the day. Kairi had ditched her tracksuit jacket already and tied it around her waist, and she was constantly pushing her hair behind her ears. Surprisingly, the only one unbothered by the rising heat was Sora.

 

“I’m starting to think he is actually able to thermoregulate himself somehow”, Riku murmured to Kairi as Sora tackled the next boulder.

“Like dolphins do.”

 

“Well, I don’t think it’s impossible”, Kairi said.

“We don’t know much about the actual biology of merpeople or what other abilities they have. What I’ve seen, you can be in the water as long as you want without turning in to a complete raisin, and you can also understand the language to some point without purposefully studying it.”

 

True. With all the reasoning of wanting to know more, Riku had asked Sora about merpeople awfully little. He wasn’t sure of how much Sora actually knew (Riku was sure that the talk of merpeople moving around a lot was not true, but something Sora’s so-called friends had told him in order to justify their own moving), but there could be things Sora could explain to him.

Things like their eyes.

 

The glowing blue eyes had revisited Riku’s dreams more than often ever since the day he first saw a merperson. His dad had pointed them out, and so had Sora, but as bright and radiating Sora was, Riku had not seen his eyes glow. Was that something not all merpeople were capable of? Sora had said that his eyes were definitely merpeople eyes, but Riku had never ever noticed anything else going on with them expect the little unusual colour.

 

He should really sit down and talk with this stuff with Sora. It would maybe prevent Riku from almost getting a seizure, like when Sora had decided to get off the bathtub.

 

“Riku! Kairi!” Riku was snapped out of his brief thoughts by Sora’s voice calling at them.

 

Sora was standing on one boulder and waving his hand frantically.

 

“I think I found something!” he yelled.

 

Riku raised his brows, and waited for Kairi to get out of the way before jumping down of the rock he had been climbing over at the moment. Getting on top of the boulder Sora was standing on was way harder than Sora had made it look like (Riku was running a hypothesis in his head that the density of muscle cells in Sora’s legs was on the edge of being higher than the density of osmium), and Riku was actually jealous seeing that Sora had barely broken any sweat, while Riku felt red and steaming.

 

“There, look”, Sora pointed down.

 

There was a slight drop from the boulder to a small ravine, slithering between the rocks towards the base of the cliff. It was too narrow for any of them to fit in (which was only a good thing, since falling in to a ravine was not something Riku wanted to do in particular) but in even in the shadow of the cliff, Riku could see something moving on the bottom of it.

And he could hear it even better. The water running down echoed out of the stone walls, and suddenly there was a feeling in Riku’s lower stomach.

 

_Follow the water._

 

Kairi leaned forward carefully to get a better look.

 

“It’s pretty deep”, she said.

“And it sounds like the water is falling downwards, so this must be very old.”

 

“That’s what I thought”, Sora said, putting his hands behind his head and smiling, clearly pleased with himself.

“And I also thought, if the water is going somewhere, then there’s clearly somewhere to _go._ ”

 

Kairi shook her head amusedly to Sora’s wording, but her face went serious as she followed the ravine with her eyes.

 

“It goes over there”, she pointed.

 

The ravine disappeared under a couple of big boulders leaning against each other, casting black shadow underneath them. It was too far away and too dark for Riku to make out if the ravine went on beyond that, but the feeling in his stomach only got stronger every second.

 

_Follow the water._

 

“We could check it out”, he said.

“Like Sora said, if the water has somewhere to go, maybe there is a way for us too.”

 

The gap between ground and the boulders looked like it was big enough for them to fit through. Kairi had clearly estimated so herself, as after couple of calculative seconds she nodded.

 

“We might as well”, she said. Then she grinned, and Riku could see how her eyes started sparkling. Yeah, one more similarity between her and Sora; both of them seemed to light up like a star when they got excited about something. And Kairi, in all her maturity and conscientiousness, got excited about stuff like this like a little kid playing adventure.

 

Sometimes (or very often, to be honest) Riku wished that he had met Kairi way earlier in his life than he had, but he was happy nevertheless.

(What was up him meeting people he liked only after going in university?)

 

“If anything, at least we’ll get a nice cave exploring story out of this.”

 

“I am worryingly starting to feel like one of those guys in the creepypastas who went missing on doing stuff like this”, Riku said, earning a light flick from Kairi to his bicep.

 

“Shut up, you’ll only bring out bad luck”, she said.

“So, you want to go, Sora?”

 

“Sure!” Sora grinned.

“Water has not yet betrayed me.”

 

He looked at Riku like Riku was supposed to know something Sora most certainly knew, before just plummeting himself down the side of the boulder. Riku had to bite his tongue almost in half to not to shriek.

 

“He probably has very strong muscles around his joints”, Kairi observed.

“So he can land safely even from bigger heights.”

 

One other thing why Riku liked Kairi so much – she was still level-headed and stayed like that when Riku didn’t, and always tried to calm him down by offering the things that Riku truly needed in the moment of panic: facts for his nervous mind to grasp as a lifeline. Or at least things that sounded believable enough to Riku think they were logical.

 

“Probably”, Riku muttered between his teeth.

“Well, I don’t, so we have to find a different way down.”

 

He heard Kairi sigh, and then felt small hand pressing up against the small of his back.

 

“I know you worry”, Kairi said lowly.

“But Sora might think that you are being patronizing if you are too controlling.”

 

Riku was aware of that. He was aware of that Sora was capable by himself (Riku didn’t like it, he wouldn’t have to be –), but the mere memory of him hesitantly pressing against Riku was enough to make something swell in Riku’s chest, and it hurt and felt warm at the same time.

 

“I know”, was all Riku managed to answer.

 

 

 

It took its own time, and they had to yet again catch up with Sora, who was standing in front of the leaning boulders, peering into the darkness.

 

“The water still flows in there”, he said.

“I think it actually does go somewhere.”

 

Kairi picked up her flashlight from her backpack, and shined it to the shadows. The ravine went on along the stone floor, and Riku couldn’t see the end of the darkness on the other end of the light.

 

_Follow the water._

 

He didn’t hear the whispers, but the feeling in his stomach reminded him of the words well enough. But there was another feeling now, too. Riku’s skin was tingling, like there was something running against his arms and legs and up his back.

Riku didn’t know if he should’ve been alarmed by it.

 

Especially when Sora next to him shrugged and smiled.

 

“Only one way to find out”, he said, and was about to step in to the darkness, when Riku grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

 

“No, you’re not going in first”, Riku said.

“I’ve had enough of you running ahead today.”

 

He ignored Sora’s pouting as he fetched his own flashlight from his backpack, and walked in to the shadows of the rocks, Sora and Kairi right behind him.

 

                                                                                                                        ⋆

 

 

“ _Fuck_ ”, Riku hissed, when the top of his head made scarping contact with a stony surface.

 

“Are you okay?” Kairi asked, her voice made blunt by the surrounding stone.

 

“Yeah, this place is just…tight”, Riku answered, this time managing to dodge another low point of the ceiling.

 

The entrance between the boulders had been generously sized (meaning it had been higher than Riku, which was generous enough), but the ceiling had very rapidly come lower and lower. There was starting to be a strain in Riku’s neck and back, but trying to walk straighter had only resulted in getting a possible bald spot on his head, as it felt like his skin had been graded off (he wasn’t bleeding though, thank god).

 

What they had first thought to be a cave was more close to being a tunnel, with the ravine splitting it in two. The ravine itself had gotten quickly very narrow, being now only a few inches wide. Riku could still hear the water running on the bottom of it, even if he couldn’t see it anymore.

 

“Must be hard being tall”, Sora said cheerfully behind him. Despite him being considerably taller than Kairi, Sora was still a lot smaller than Riku, and so he had no problem in walking with an actually good posture right behind Riku. Riku was happy that the place wasn’t narrow on top of it being low.

 

“Oh, yeah, laugh at my pain”, he shot back at Sora.

“When have I done that to you?”

 

“Well, I can patch it up and hug it better when we get home, right?” Riku could practically hear Sora smile.

“So it should be okay.”

 

Oh. The skin on top of Riku’s cheekbones suddenly felt raw, like he had rubbed them on the rock and not his head, and he was happy that neither Sora nor Kairi could see his face right now.

He was sure that Kairi knew, somehow, because Kairi _always_ knew absolutely _everything_ , and he could swear he heard her giggle under her breath at the end of their three-person line.

 

“Did I say something wrong?” Sora asked when he didn’t say anything, coming to walk almost at Riku’s heels. He was radiating warmth on his back, and Riku’s skin was now too small on his body.

 

“No”, Riku answered curtly, suddenly afraid of speaking, in case his mouth decided to spit something out he didn’t want to, and _what was wrong with him?_

 

Yeah, Kairi was definitely giggling behind Sora. At least she sounded like she was trying to conceal it, but in such a small space it didn’t too much.

Then Riku heard Sora’s footsteps coming to a halt, the warmth disappearing from his back, and Kairi’s giggles ending with a surprised yelp.

 

Riku stopped too, confused, and turned around to see what was going on. Sora was standing dead on his tracks, eyes wide and blinking rapidly, looking confused himself.

 

“What is it?” he asked. Sora pursed his lips.

 

“I thought I heard something”, he answered. He looked at Riku, the same way he had looked at him earlier, like Riku was supposed to know something Sora did.

“You didn’t?”

 

Riku was almost certain that Sora heard when the waves spoke too (or at least Riku hoped so, since otherwise he would maybe go and get it checked out), but it was silent. The water was running in the ravine, but it didn’t say anything.

But there was the tingling in his skin, and Riku could swear it was all of a sudden more intense than it was before.

He shook his head.

 

“It was probably nothing”, Kairi said, placing her hands on Sora’s shoulders.

“These kinda places make the mind imagine stuff, like noises.”

 

A logical explanation, like always. The tunnel was a bit eerie, Riku had to admit. Kairi had kindly informed him of the geography of this place (she had guessed that Riku hadn’t actually read any of the material Mr. Avelino put online), and because of that, Riku knew that they were by now most likely inside the cliff, which was part of a bigger basement rock. The sunlight that had trickled inside the tunnel by the entrance was long gone too, leaving them manage with only their flashlights.

Deep inside of the ground, in darkness. Yeah, Riku was surprised his mind wasn’t making up anything at that very moment.

 

Sora hummed.

 

“I guess so”, he said, and smiled.

“This place is creepy, anyways. Have people really gone missing like this?”

 

“Stop, please”, Riku turned around to shine in to the darkness in front of them.

“Before you even start.”

 

“You started first”, Sora pointed out.

 

“It was before we got in here, now please be quiet.”

 

Sora laughed, and Riku had really hard time being mad at him for even a single second.

 

The tingling in his skin hadn’t went away, though. Riku tried not to let it disturb him.

 

 

 

The tunnel did get narrower. Riku was not happy about that at all.

 

Thankfully it didn’t get too narrow for them to get forward, but at few instances Riku was really glad for not being claustrophobic. That would’ve sucked majorly.

 

Sora had pulled out chocolate from his backpack after one time Riku had thought for a second he was stuck, and while the sweetness prevented Riku from getting moody, he was getting royally unnerved by the tingling.

If he could even call it ‘tingling’ anymore. Riku was positive that there were actually bugs running on his skin, under his skin. He had to harshly press down the urge to shiver visibly.

It was like…like someone was watching them, just outside of their lights reach, never blinking an eye. Waiting.

 

No, that didn’t help at all.

 

Riku bit the inside of his cheek. He really couldn’t show his own discomfort when Sora was right there.

Sora had not said anything else about hearing things, but Riku could sense that it hadn’t stopped either. Every now and then, when Sora wasn’t talking about something completely unrelated to the situation (he had just recapped an entire episode of Friends to them in about a minute) Riku could hear him taking in a breath like he was going to start talking again, but then decided against it.

And every single time when that happened, he would move a little bit closer to Riku.

 

Another urge Riku had to press down, even harder than the first, was to grab Sora’s hand in his and hold it.

He wasn’t sure if it was because Riku thought Sora needed it, or if he himself needed it as well.

 

Sora decided on Riku’s behalf, as Riku suddenly felt smaller, warm fingers coming around his own.

It was just because Sora got warm hands that Riku’s fingers felt like they were on fire.

 

“Are you sure you don’t hear anything?” Sora asked. There was an edge on his voice Riku had not heard before. It was almost anxious.

 

“I’m sure”, Riku answered. He hesitated for a second before squeezing Sora’s hand gently.

“Are you okay?”

 

If Sora said no, Riku would turn them all around in an instant. But in the poor lighting, he saw Sora nod when he turned his head to see over his shoulder.

 

“Yeah”, Sora said.

“It’s not…bad, it’s just – “

 

He didn’t get to finish his sentence, when Riku almost collided with a wall that was suddenly in front of them.

 

Riku jumped backwards in surprise, and so did Sora, and Kairi had to jump out of the way to not collide with them.

 

“Oh”, Sora said. They all just stood there for a few seconds, until Riku got himself together again.

 

Riku shined the wall up and down. It wasn’t very high, as the ceiling was now just a little bit higher than Riku’s head. The most prominent thing in it was a wide crack in the middle of the stone.

Riku stepped closer and looked inside the crack. With the light pointed straight to it, he could see there was something on the other side, but the light didn’t quite reach far enough for Riku to make out what it was exactly. He stepped closer trying to see better, and Sora ducked his head under his arm to see himself.

 

“Do you think we’d fit through?” he asked. Riku took a step back.

 

“Maybe”, he said. The crack was wide enough for a person to potentially fit through, and Riku estimated that Kairi wouldn’t likely have any problem in shimmying to the other side. Sora would probably have easy time too. Riku wasn’t just so sure about himself. He wasn’t very sturdy, relatively speaking (Riku liked to describe himself as broad-shouldered at the best), but he was still bigger than Sora and Kairi in many places that could bring him difficulties.

 

He didn’t have much time to think about it, because Sora was trying to get around him, and Riku had to yank him back.

 

“Nu-uh, you’re still not going first”, Riku said.

“You don’t know what’s on the other side, you can’t just- “

 

“And do you know what’s in there?” Sora asked. The look was back, Sora’s blue eyes darker than normally in the small light, which made them look a lot harsher than they actually were.

 

Yeah, good going Riku. He sighed, loud.

 

“No, I don’t”, he answered.

“But I’m not going to let you go there alone, and I have to go first so we can see if I actually can even fit through.”

 

The look in Sora’s eyes was making Riku way more uneasy than it really should, and Riku had to hold his breath in until they softened again.

 

“Okay, fair enough”, he said, and stepped back.

 

“We’ll have to leave the backpacks here, though”, Kairi said.

“They are not going to fit through, so take anything you’ll think you need in your hands.”

 

Riku hadn’t packed much, so he only took out his pocket knife and a roll of elastic bandage he had taken just in case and stuffed them in his pockets, before leaving his backpack leaning on against the wall.

 

“Wait here until I say so”, Riku said, and then started to squeeze himself through.

 

Good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic. As Riku had taken first few, sideway steps, he was already tightly pressed between two rough stone walls, back pushed firmly against one, and chest less than an inch from another.

Good thing he wasn’t claustrophobic, because even without it, Riku was more than anxious about his current situation.

 

“Just don’t let there be anything on the height of my face”, he murmured to himself, inching forward while trying to light his way. He still couldn’t see what was on the other side, but there were only few feet left before he was through.

 

Stone scraped his chin and nose, and Riku close his eyes. Better get his eyelids scratched than his actual eyes. Chest in, chin against the neck, there you go. Almost there.

 

“Riku?” Kairi called.

“How are you doing?”

 

She could see him, Riku knew. The crack wasn’t that long. He wondered what kind of face he was making.

 

“I have been in more comfortable places”, he called back, before sucking in his stomach to get past one part where the walls tilted.

“Must be nice being small.”

 

“In situations like this, yeah. I’m still going to complain about not reaching anything.”

 

Riku huffed out a short laugh. The exist was just there, just few more steps.

 

Riku pushed himself out, and took in a huge breath. And then he looked up.

 

“Oh”, he breathed.

“Oh, wow.”

 

There was a door in front of him.

 

Big, tall door, metal surface glistening. He couldn’t even get the whole thing in the spotlight of his flashlight, so he had to light it all the way around to get a good look.

 

His skin was basically itchy now, chills going down his back, and he felt like the door was staring at him, like it was some kind of guardian making sure no one got past it, and for a moment Riku forgot how to speak.

Riku screamed when someone suddenly grabbed him by the arm.

 

“Holy – it’s just me!” Sora stepped in front of him.

“You didn’t say anything, so I came to see if you’re…”

 

Sora got quiet again, and Riku could see how his eyes went big, and he looked like he was suddenly dunked in ice-cold water.

 

“What?” Riku asked, getting his breathing in check.

“Sora?”

 

“You don’t hear that?” Sora spoke so quietly Riku didn’t almost hear him.

 

“Hear what?” Riku asked.

“Sora, what is it?”

 

“I don’t know”, Sora answered. He turned around slowly to face the door.

“It sounds like someone is…calling."

 

Riku had watched enough horror movies to become nervous by Sora’s words. Voices that sounded like they were calling him, accompanied by a constant feeling of someone watching them? That was straight from some kind of demon-infused nightmare.

 

Behind them, Kairi stepped outside from the crack too.

 

“Oh, wow”, she said just like Riku.

“That is…a very big door in a very weird place.”

 

“Tell me about it”, Riku muttered.

“Hey, Sora, wait!”

 

Sora had swiftly crossed the distance between them and the door. He was pressing his palms against it, and leaning closer like he was trying to listen.

 

“I can hear it”, he said.

“It comes from the other side.”

 

Kairi raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t have time to comment anything to Sora’s words, when Sora spoke again, louder this time.

 

“Hey, look!" Sora exclaimed.

"There's a keyhole!"

 

That got both Riku and Kairi to quickly run to Sora’s side, who was pointing at the door.

 

There was indeed a keyhole, ridiculously small for door that big (big door doesn’t mean big key, Riku), glistening silver in the light. It had stayed clear, despite it looking old, just like Sora’s key had.

Just as the thought crossed Riku’s mind, Sora was there, pulling up the key from his pocket. Riku shot Sora a solemn look.

 

“What?” Sora blinked.

 

“If that key now fits in this door, I’m going to lose my mind”, Riku huffed. Sora laughed, and so did Kairi although she didn’t sound actually amused. Riku figured it was the same exact reason why Riku wasn’t laughing at all.

 

Sora put the key in the keyhole, and twisted it.

There was a loud click Riku could feel all the way in his spine, and then the door opened.

 

It rumbled and trembled, and Riku was worried of the whole place coming down on them, but then it stopped, and they were staring at the vast blackness on the other side of the door.

Well, it was not entirely dark. In the middle of the darkness, a bright, blue light shimmered, and there was a rush of something that left Riku almost uncomfortably ticklish from head to toe.

 

Sora took a step forward, and there was a second loud click, and then a noise that reminded Riku of the old power lines on the island coming back on after a storm had cut out the electricity.

Then there was deafening boom, and Riku saw only white. He covered his eyes a second too late, and when he opened them again, his vision was hazy, and he had to blink multiple times until he stopped seeing in double.

 

In front of them was now a white room, with multiple lights hanging from the ceiling, shining brightly (and making a loud whirring noise that was already making Riku’s head hurt). The room was completely bare, apart from a single table on the other side of the room.

And on the table was a holder with a glass dome over it, and blue light shimmering inside.

 

None of them said anything for a long moment. They stood at the entrance of the room, Sora with one foot inside, while Riku was trying to make out what the hell was going on.

Then Sora laughed shortly.

 

“Okay, I understand what you meant now”, he said, rubbing his neck. He glanced over at Riku.

“I’m going to go see what it is.”

 

At least he was now saying something before just running off, Riku thought as he followed Sora inside.

He was also, to Riku's satisfaction, being more cautious now. Sora walked up to the table slowly, Riku and Kairi both close to his sides, and he stopped to look at the blue light inside the glass more closely. Shivers ran down Riku’s skin, and he pressed his fingernails to his palms to not to scratch his arms.

 

It felt like the light was radiating, and the radiation made Riku feel tingling and itchy for some reason. Riku looked quickly at Kairi, to see if she looked bothered at all, but she seemed just to be curious. Not a sing of being itchy or tingly or hearing voices.

Riku wasn't sure if he should’ve been worried over the fact that only Sora was hearing these voices.

 

“Do you have any idea what it is?” Kairi asked, looking at Sora, who shook his head.

 

“No idea”, Sora answered.

“But it’s _talking._ ”

 

Kairi frowned, but chose not to argue.

 

“What does it say, then?” she asked instead.

 

“I can’t really understand any of it”, Sora explained.

“Not any words, at least, but it gives me these feelings, like it wants to say something.”

 

Kairi nodded, slowly, looking down at the bare white table in front of them. Her eyebrows shot back up.

 

“There’s another keyhole”, she pointed out.

 

Riku looked down as well. There was a single, big plate that looked like it could be pressed down, and under it a small, silver keyhole.

 

Sora looked at the key in his hand.

 

“Well, it worked on the door”, he said, before pushing the key in and twisting.

 

Something clicked, and a low whirring erupted from the table. The light inside the glass seemed to flash brighter, and then the plate on the table lit up in blue light as well.

 

Sora pressed his hand on the plate and pushed it down before Riku could tell him not to touch anything, and the whirring got louder until there was another clicking sound.

 

_“12 th of January, year 1789”_, a deep voice spoke suddenly in the room, startling them all.

 

_“I have today received a message from the council. The decision of closing the last parts of the city remains effective, but as expected, there has been rather strong objection against the ruling. What I understood from it, Master Xehanort was the one who opposed the council’s decision most. I can’t in all honesty put a blame on him for doing so, as losing the city means losing all of his work as well._

_But this is for the best. I believe in the council, for what is left of it. I hope Master Xehanort will come to understand so too.”_

 

The voice stopped, and the whirring started again. Riku frowned.

 

“…a voice log?” he asked, glancing at Sora and Kairi, who both looked just as confused as he.

 

“It sounded like one”, Kairi said.

“1789…that was over two hundred years ago. How old is this place?”

 

“Shhhh!” Sora shushed them, as there whirring stopped and there was a click again.

 

_“8 th of July, year 1789. All of my attempts of reaching Master Xehanort have ended in vain. The council has ordered that if anyone sees of him or hears of him, they must alert the council at once._

_I fear that my hopes of him seeing the reasons behind this were for nothing. Yet I can not cease in effort of making him abandon whatever he is planning.”_

 

Whoever this Master Xehanort was the voice talked about, Riku had a weird feeling he didn’t like him. The name had a really unpleasant echo in it that made Riku’s mouth taste bitter.

He was trying to piece together what the voice was talking about. A city, that had been closed for some reason, and this Master Xehanort, whoever he was, had clearly not been happy about it at all, and was now planning something that, judged from the way the voice was talking about it, was nothing good.

 

But what city was he talking about?

 

The whirring stopped again, and there was click, but instead of the voice talking, there was a loud screeching noise that shot through Riku’s head and made his ears ring painfully. He clasped his hands over his ears as the noise crackled, like the voice was trying to speak over it, but he couldn’t make anything out of it.

The screeching stopped abruptly, and the whirring returned. There was still a slight ringing in Riku’s ears when the next click sounded, and he braced himself in case of there would be another loud noise.

 

_“21th of March, year 2006.”_

 

Riku blinked in confusion.

 

The voice speaking was still the same as it had been in previously, but suddenly they were over 200 years forward, only then years from the present day.

 

There was no way it was the same person talking. In Riku’s knowledge, there wasn’t people who lived several hundred years and sounded exactly the same.

 

_Says you, who isn’t even completely a human_ , his mind reminded him.

 

_“I had hoped”,_ the voice sounded tired, defeated.

 

_“That since Master Xehanort has now been long gone, the rest of my long life would have been spent in ease. But I should have known that anyone who carries that name would not rest until they have reached their goal. It is something that has been etched deeply in that line of blood, and I see that it does still carry on as strong as before.”_

 

An unpleasant chill blossomed in Riku’s chest, making his skin go in goose pumps. Whatever the voice was talking about, it didn’t sound good.

 

_“I am now alone. There is no city, no council, no one to rule us and keep an order. The humans have long forgotten us, they are no help to me._

_They know me. I can not hide, nor can I run for long. The only thing I could have done in a situation like this has been to destroy all the records of this place and the others, to prevent them ever finding this._

_I have been mostly successful in that, but the key is still a problem. It can not be destroyed, only passed forward, and finding someone to keep it safe has been the most difficult task I have yet encountered. I wish there would have been another way, or that I could, at least, properly apologize to the family, but this is the only way. I still have some I can trust to keep him and the key in secret, while I’ll try to prevent any further wrongdoings from happening. It is my only purpose as a Guardian.”_

 

They waited, in case of there would be something else, but the whirring just continued undisturbed.

 

Riku turned to Sora. He was staring at the table, or more precisely, at the key in the keyhole.

 

Riku couldn’t read his face at all. He had seen Sora being serious before, but now his expression was completely blank, and the only way Riku could tell he was still there was the way he had pressed his lips together in a thin line so hard the blood had escaped from them.

Riku was not stupid. He had understood exactly what the last message had been about.

 

“That was ten years ago”, Sora said, his voice small.

“The first day a woke up on the island was 20th of March.”

 

And it was clear that Sora had understood as well.

 

Riku’s chest constricted.

 

“Sora…” he started, feeling the urge of wrapping his arms around Sora again and holding him there surfacing almost painfully. Sora breather in hard.

 

“Let’s go home”, he said.

“I’m tired.”

 

Sora grabbed the key to pull it out when something happened.

 

In one second the whole panel lighted up blindingly, and there was a pulse of energy like electricity that made all the hair on Riku’s arms and neck to stand up.

A blue flash shot up from panel to the key, and from the key to Sora’s hand.

 

Then a sharp bang rang in the room, Sora let out a strangled gasp, all the light from the panel disappeared, and Sora collapsed on to the floor like a ragdoll.

 

Riku’s heart stopped.

 

“Sora!” he dropped down on his knees, and turned Sora hastily on his back.

 

Sora’s eyes were closed, but he was crunching his brows together and groaning quietly, which dissolved Riku’s panic a little. Just a little, though.

 

“Ow…” Sora mumbled.

“What just…”

 

He opened his eyes. Riku’s breath caught up again, and Kairi gasped.

 

Sora’s eyes were glowing. Just in the way Riku remembered the eyes from that day sixteen years ago.

 

It only lasted for couple of seconds. Sora closed his eyes again and slowly rubbed his face with the back of his hand, and when he opened his eyes the second time, they were back to normal.

 

“What happened?” he finished his question, pushing himself up. Riku quickly grabbed his arms, and flinched a little at how Sora’s skin was almost feverishly warm.

 

“I’m not sure”, Kairi said. She was looking alarmed now, too, after being the only calm one for the whole day.

“There was a flash of light, and then you collapsed, and- “

 

She looked up at the table, and Riku followed her gaze.

 

The glass dome on the table was now empty, the blue light gone.

 

Riku didn’t like that at all.

 

He pushed down the uneasiness in order to take Sora’s hands to help him to stand up.

 

“We can think about what happened once we get home”, he decided. They still had to walk the tunnel all the way back, and Riku just really wanted to get Sora out as soon as possible.

Kairi nodded, agreeing, but she looked down at the table.

 

“What about the key?”

 

The key was still in the keyhole on the table. If Riku was honest, he would’ve more than gladly just left the thing there and get rid of it that way.

But he didn’t.

 

Carefully, he reached his hand, and touched the key with his fingertips. The metal was warm, but nothing happened, and Riku pulled the key out and gave it back to Sora. Sora said a quiet thank you under his breath, putting the key back in his pocket.

 

“Let’s go”, Riku said, still holding Sora’s hand, and he felt Sora clasping his hand back.

 

 

                                                                                                                   ⋆      

 

 

The sound of the waves had never felt better, and Riku didn’t care at all about the heat that hit them hard when they climbed out from the tunnel.

 

Compared to his hurry in the morning, Sora now stayed close to Riku, even though they had already stopped holding hands. He seemed to be fine, moving normally and everything, but Riku was still ready to catch him if he suddenly collapsed again or something else happened.

 

“I’m hungry”, Sora announced, when they were all the way back up at the end of the hiking trail.

“It’s been ages since breakfast.”

 

“We can stop at McDonald’s on our way home”, Riku promised. Now that Sora had said it out loud, he had noticed how hungry he was himself, and Riku had absolutely no energy or will to cook and to deal with the aftermath.

 

“My treat”, Kairi said.

“McFlurry could do good for all of us.”

 

Riku was just about to argue about the paying, when he heard someone talking.

 

“I don’t understand why out of all people I have to do this. What on Earth is Braig doing?”

 

The voice came around a turn on the trail, and it was accompanied by two set of footsteps.

 

“Braig has other duties”, another voice answered.

 

It was a voice Riku recognized, as he had heard it before from very close. It belonged to the other man in the lighthouse, who the man with the sleeked back hair had talked with.

Around the turn on the trail two men appeared in front of them. Riku recognized the other one from the face, too. He was the man from the boat, the one with longer black hair tied back on a loose ponytail.

 

Riku tried not to be intimated by him, as he was a lot taller than Riku (which was something Riku didn’t come across too often) and was otherwise big physically as well. The man with him was tall as well, but (thankfully) he wasn’t too threatening-looking. If anything, he looked very uncomfortable with his current location, long blonde hair stuck to his face, which was set in a deep scowl.

 

“Excuse me if I highly doubt that his ‘other duties’ are something more important than mine”, he spat to the black-haired man.

“He is just – oh.”

 

The men stopped when they saw them coming towards them. Riku moved slightly closer to Sora and tried not to be tense.

 

The men stood there as they walked closer, and Riku could feel their staring on his face, as he tried his best to not to look directly at them without looking suspicious.

Sora had said that merpeople were recognised from their eyes, and while most of the humans could not distinguish them or even think that extremely blue eyes were a sign of something, Riku was sure that the men knew exactly what merpeople eyes looked like.

 

Kairi greeted the men with a short hello, and Riku nodded very quickly as a greeting, discreetly pushing Sora a bit to make him walk just a little bit faster, away from the men’s inspecting eyes. He didn't like the calculating look he saw on the blonde-haired man's face from the corner of his eye, or how it moved down from Riku's face to Sora.

 

Riku only relaxed when they were back at the main road, waiting for the next bus.

 

"Were those them?" Sora asked, turning to look over at the trail's direction.

 

Riku nodded.

 

"The taller one with the black hair was on the island", he said.

"I guess they figured out what the markings meant, too."

 

They had been ahead of the men this time, if only by a little. Not that they would've even gotten in without the key. 

 

The bus arrived, and Sora leaned on Riku as they sat down. 

 

"Good thing we got there before them", Sora said. He was still warm, and there was a tingling, itchy feeling that run up Riku's arm when Sora touched him. Exactly like the one Riku had felt down in that room.

 

There were so much things Riku wanted to say, but he swallowed every single one of them down.

 

"Yeah", was the only thing he managed to say. Riku pressed his forehead against the window and closed his eyes.

 

The glowing blue eyes that were now burning inside his eyelids were not the ones he had seen sixteen years ago. They were Sora's now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we go!
> 
> I tried to take up a bit different approach to this chapter. Writing more action-y chapters has never been my strongest facility, but I had to have at least one in here in order to get this part of the story going. Idk, I always end up feeling like I'm rushing and not explaining enough, but then again I don't want to stop to explain too much. 
> 
> Xehanort mentioned, weird glowing lights, and Riku had approximately 25 heart attacks during one day. He really needs that McFlurry.
> 
> (also dear tall people, who does it feel being tall? Anyone noticed the salt in this?)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm sorry this chapter took so long. I am visiting my family right now, and since we don't see too often as I live pretty far away, I've been spending time with them for the past week.
> 
> Second, as for the update schedule, the next chapters are not going to have a set day when they come out, but they will still be updated at some point of the next following week, depending on how much time I have for writing and when I am ready. But now, enjoy!

Walking in McDonald’s was walking inside his teenage years.

 

While the town Riku had lived in with his cousins had been a lot bigger than any of the towns on islands, it had still been mostly rural areas surrounding a small town center. The local McDonald’s had been the main hangout place for the kids, and Riku had spent most of his after-school afternoon hours sitting there, nibbling on French fries while waiting for his aunt or her husband to come pick them up.

Nothing had really changed from those days. The small dining area was full of teenagers spending their Friday in, and Riku was surprised over the fact that they managed to find an empty table that wasn’t right next to anyone else.

 

Sora was probably having the best time of them in there. He actually looked in the menu (Riku couldn’t remember when he had last time actually looked up what McDonald’s even had to offer, since he had had double cheeseburger every time since turning 13), he pouted about not being able to have the toy with his meal, and then started chew on his straw while waiting for their food, while also, during all this, talking constantly.

 

So Sora was being pretty normal, which in any other situation would have been a good thing. And it was, in one way. Sora behaving normally after getting shocked by ominous, talking blue ball of light was a good thing. Sora behaving normally after hearing things that most likely were about him was not so good thing.

Riku almost wanted him to behave differently. Throw a tantrum, be angry, cry, whatever it was that was not smiling all the time and steering the conversation to completely irrelevant things. But no, after a short moment of being somewhat solemn and quiet, Sora had went back in being his own bright self.  

 

Sora had clearly understood that the voice had talked about the same key Sora had, and that the voice had passed it over to someone around exactly the same time Sora had found himself on the island, with a key in hand and no memories of his past. Riku could understand him pretending to be fine when it was about physical injuries (not really, but he could understand the sentiment behind it). But if Riku had lost his entire life and then found out that maybe it was done on purpose, he would’ve definitely been way more upset than Sora was.

 

Was Sora just not upset or was he just pretending not to be? Both of those options were bad if you asked Riku.

 

“So”, Kairi said, twirling a spoon in her McFlurry.

“Today was kinda…eventful.”

 

“An understatement if I’ve ever heard one”, Riku muttered, leaning a bit over the table closer to Sora and Kairi when another group sat on the table near them.

“What _was_ that place?”

 

Kairi didn’t say anything. Her eyes moved to Sora, who was trying to open a dip container. When he noticed that they were both looking at him, he shrugged.

 

“I don’t know”, he said.

“I know just as much about this as you do. But it felt like it was important.”

 

“In that we can agree”, Kairi said.

“It did sound important, whatever it was.”

 

“To me it sounded like there is some kind of evil guy running around, trying to get the key for whatever reasons, and he most likely has something to do with someone called Master Xehanort”, Riku said.

“And this Master Xehanort lived over 200 years ago and probably did some bad stuff back then.”

 

And in order to stop bad things from happening, the owner of the voice had decided to ruin Sora’s life, Riku added in his mind. He had thought earlier about how the name Xehanort had foul taste in it, but now it actually made his mouth bitter, and Riku took a long gulp from his soda to wash it down.

How the hell was Sora not visibly upset? Because Riku was starting to be, and it didn’t even have anything to do with him.

 

“We don’t know that yet”, Kairi said.

“Because even if it did sound like that, we can’t really be sure. We don’t know what that place was or what the light was, or what the voice was even talking about. We don’t know the context, so we can’t jump in to conclusions of who is the evil guy here.”

 

It was all logically true, Riku had to admit.

 

“But”, Kairi continued.

“I’m not saying we should just trust these guys either. Because in all honestly, they do seem more than a little shady, if that’s the right way to put it. And they saw our faces just now, so we have to be even more careful, in case they really turn out to be the bad guys.”

 

“So trust no one?” Sora asked. He had already destroyed most of his food, and Riku was starting to think that he had lived in perpetual hunger before all this, if the way he ate told anything. Riku poured some of his fries on Sora’s tray when he wasn’t looking.

 

“I think that’s the safest option”, Kairi nodded.

“And I don’t think I have to tell you two again about being careful?”

 

“I have done absolutely nothing”, Sora said.

“Tell Riku to be careful.”

 

“I wasn’t the one who got shocked by speaking ball of unnaturally coloured light today”, Riku said, pinching Sora’s cheek. Sora yelped and swatted his hand away.

 

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Sora defended himself.

“I was just trying to take my key, it wasn’t like I knew it was going to do that. And does it matter, anyway? I’m completely fine.”

 

“ _Thankfully_ ”, Riku said.

“You don’t have to touch everything you come across, especially if you don’t know what it is.”

 

That was when the hard look come back to Sora’s eyes in a flash, and Riku knew he had said too much.

 

“Stop it, both of you”, Kairi said sternly.

“Right now we don’t have any other clues on what’s going on, so let’s relax for a bit. Alright? Think about something else. I have to do schoolwork tomorrow, since we skipped all the classes today, and I advise that you do the same, Riku. And I’m going to take Sora to shopping on Sunday. Didn’t you say you were going to see Cid on the weekend? You can go then.”

 

“I guess so”, Riku said.

“What are your parents going to say to you spending all your money to us?”

 

“They’ll probably laugh and make jokes of me being a sugar mom”, Kairi grinned slightly.

“And to be honest, if they met you and Sora, they would buy you things too.”

 

Riku shifted uncomfortably at the thought, which made Kairi laugh.

 

“Don’t act like you don’t deserve nice things”, she said, smiling at Riku.

 

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” Sora nudged him, the hard tone (for Riku’s relief) having vanished from his eyes.

“You are like the nicest person I know. Um, no offence Kairi.”

 

Kairi laughed a bit harder.

 

“No hard feelings”, she said.

“I completely understand.”

 

So did Riku. Being the nicest person Sora had met wasn’t really a hard title to accomplish. He swallowed down the forming lump in his throat, and with it the urge to hug Sora again (because if Riku was the nicest person he had ever met, then he needed to be hugged _bad_ ).

 

“So, relaxing for the weekend?” Sora smiled.

“I can do that.”

 

“Of course you can”, Riku said, earning a pout from Sora (yeah, pouting Sora was much better than Sora with hard eyes).

“You can sleep for the whole day while I work.”

 

Riku could do relaxing for the weekend as well. If his stress levels would keep on rising, he’d burst if something came up again.

 _When_ something came up again, Riku’s mind corrected. Riku showed the thought down to somewhere he hoped it wouldn’t haunt him.

 

It didn’t work, of course.

 

 

                                                                                                                                ⋆

 

 

Sora flung his backpack on to the floor and flopped on to the couch.

 

“Nap time”, he yawned and stretched.

“Took long enough, it’s way past the usual time.”

 

“Be careful now, or you might end up not being able to fall asleep in the night”, Riku warned, tossing his backpack on to the floor a lot gentler than Sora.

 

“Nah, don’t worry, I am always able to fall asleep”, Sora grinned.

“But I can also stay awake if I want to. You know that, since we’ve only met during the nights before this.”

 

Riku only noticed Sora saying ‘nights’, not ‘night’ after Sora was already drifting of. Well, he could ask about it later. But…

 

“Are you sure you are okay?” he asked, leaning on the backrest of the couch, watching over it at Sora.

 

“Yeah”, Sora mumbled, yawning again, not even bothering to open his eyes.

“I’m alright. My elbows hurt a little bit because of falling but hey, better my elbows than my head.”

 

“I meant how are you feeling”, Riku said.

 

Sora didn’t answer right away. He kept his eyes closed, and for a moment Riku thought he had actually fallen asleep already.

 

“I’m alright”, Sora said then.

“It certainly was something, but nothing I couldn’t handle. If it is a good thing that I have the key, then it’s okay. I am happy that I could help, you know?”

 

Riku didn’t know. Help how? Riku wanted to ask, but he didn’t. Today had been long for Sora too. And Riku remembered what had happened last time Riku had confronted him about his life, and doing that right now would maybe be too much for Sora. Last thing Riku wanted was to make Sora feel bad.

 

“…I just want you to know”, Riku said slowly, after the silence had stretched between them again.

“That I’m here for you, okay? You’re not alone with this…stuff, that is happening.”

 

He had to. He had to, because no one else seemed to be. Riku wasn’t like Sora, he was not good with people and he was not generous and ready to help absolutely anyone, but Riku wasn’t going to leave anyone alone. Especially not anyone like Sora, who had just said he was happy to help, when those who he helped didn’t seem to give anything back to him. Out of all people, Riku shouldn’t’ve had to be the first one to ever hold him properly, to comfort.

Riku just didn’t understand. Couldn’t understand.

 

“I know”, Sora said, and though he didn’t look at Riku, he still smiled. Maybe it was because he had his eyes closed, but to Riku, he looked a little sad (Riku hoped he just imagined it).

“Hey, Riku?”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Can we do something tomorrow?”

 

“Do what?” Riku frowned.

 

“Like, go somewhere. Do stuff. Spent time together while having fun”, Sora cracked one eye open to look at Riku.

“Kairi told us to relax.”

 

“And by that she meant that we should have a good night of sleep and not think about this”, Riku answered.

“And I do have to do my homework.”

 

“And then you’re going to be just as stressed out as you were before at the end of the weekend”, Sora said.

“You don’t have that much to do, you said it yourself yesterday.”

 

Ah, yes. Riku had assured Kairi that he was already mostly done with all of his work, so it would be okay for him to go and see what there was on the cliff right away, instead of them going on Saturday. Riku didn’t have that much to do, true, but it was still…a lot more than he had told Kairi. (Kairi would be okay even with skipping a whole week, by some technique Riku couldn’t come to understand, and Kairi knew that)

And of course Sora had heard him as well, and was now using it against him. Riku could tell Sora that he had told a little white lie, which was the best option in his current situation, but suddenly Riku found it really hard to say. First of all, he found himself really reluctant of admitting to Sora that he had lied, even if it was something so small (which was ridiculous, Sora wasn’t a little kid who needed to be taught not to lie).

 

And second of all…doing something with Sora sounded much, much better than sitting inside his apartment and doing homework. The last week had been more than hectic, and Riku could still feel the unpleasant tingling on his skin he had felt in the room. He really did want something else to think about, because Riku knew from experience that otherwise he would end up creating images in his head and losing sleep as a result. His high school counsellor had once recommended that he should do something mentally distracting while having those kinds of thoughts to get rid of them. Or, alternatively, seek out company.

 

Riku had ended up doing his aunts crossword puzzles, since he had felt more than uncomfortable about purposefully spending time with his cousins and their friends when getting anxious. He just hadn’t been close enough to them for to do that.

 

But he had Kairi now, and he still ended up doing sudokus and solving statistic problems more times than spending time with her. Riku wasn’t sure if he had ever even told Kairi about his bad nerves, although he was more than sure that she knew already.

Now he felt bad. Kairi was always making sure that Riku knew that she cared about him, but did he ever show her back that he knew? He now had people he liked and who he felt good to be with, and he still didn’t take their offers.

 

Sora was now looking at him with both of his eyes open, and even though he looked sleepy, he had made his eyes so wide that he reminded Riku of a puppy asking for a treat, and that combined with him just guilt-tripping himself sealed the deal.

 

“Sure”, Riku found himself saying.

“We can…do something. Go somewhere.”

 

Sora shot up sitting.

 

“We can?” he asked, leaning on the back rest so abruptly Riku had to lean back so Sora wouldn’t hit his head in Riku’s face.

“I want to go swimming, can we go swimming? I promise that these don’t hurt anymore, and you said they look good when you changed the bandages.”

 

“We can go swimming”, Riku promised, because the cuts in Sora’s arm and neck were healing well and Riku didn’t think they would get infected anymore, so there was no reason for not letting Sora to go to the ocean. He most likely missed swimming greatly.

“We just have to go somewhere that is out of the town, it’s not safe here right now.”

 

“Of course”, Sora said, smiling so brightly that Riku had to smile back. Then Sora yawned widely, and Riku just had to laugh.

 

“Go to sleep, you big baby”, he said, gently poking Sora’s cheek. There was the tingling feeling again, crawling up his finger, but Riku chased it away.

 

Sora stuck out his tongue.

 

“Only a year younger”, he mumbled, yawning again. He lay back down and curled to his side.

“Don’t act all tall and mighty.”

 

“Well, I am taller than you”, Riku said.

 

“Shut uuuuuuuup”, the vowel was lengthened by yet another yawn, and Sora fetched his pillow to press his face in to it.

“I’m napping now, so go do your…tall person things or whatever.”

 

Riku chuckled.

 

“I will, I will, since I am not going to be able to do them tomorrow”, he said. He really should. Maybe writing his essay would take the edge of from the mess of feelings today had left curling inside him. There was a lot Riku recognised and a lot he didn’t. There was worry, wonder, wariness, and warmness, which was flaring right there inside Riku’s ribcage, and Riku knew it, but he didn’t know where it came from.

Sora had just looked so very bright that Riku could’ve sworn he had been actually radiating, like he had never been as happy as he had when Riku had promised that they would spend time together tomorrow.

 

There was a tug in Riku’s chest, and Riku was suddenly drowning in an upsetting realisation that no one had probably never before spent time with Sora. At least not willingly, and with that thought, the warmness in his ribcage vanished and it was replaced with an entirely new heat. Anger.

Even if Sora refused to be angry, Riku decided that he had every right be angry for Sora. Because no one, absolutely no one, was going to be able to make someone else suffer and then get away with it. Even if Riku was not flawless and maybe not the best choice for this, if it was now up to him to make Sora happy, he would do it. Because it was just not _fair._

 

Riku had never been good with people, but he had always known what having someone with him was, even when he hadn’t been close to them. He had his dad, he had his aunt and her husband, he had his cousins, he had Kairi. It had always been Riku who was different and who had not reached out for them, but then there was Sora who just naturally gravitated towards people in a way that got even Riku out from his shell, and out of two of them, Sora was the one who had been denied the warmth Riku could still feel lingering under the heat of anger, and it was just not _fair._

Riku had to grip the side of the kitchen table so hard his knuckles went snow white to not to scream.

 

Maybe, a little voice thought in the back of his head, maybe Sora was angry, and he needed distraction from all of this just as much as you do.

 

Riku let go of the table, and fiercely pulled out his notebooks from his schoolbag he had left on one of the chairs. He might not be the best choice to do this, but Riku wasn’t going to let that stop him. Kairi could make fun of him prancing around during nights helping merpeople as much as she wanted, but Riku was stubborn when it was about something that mattered to him.

 

So Sora was going to have the best damned Saturday tomorrow. And Riku swore that if he ever met anyone of these friends of Sora’s, he would punch them right in the face.

 

 

 

There weren’t many trains that went between the city and the nearby areas, but there was one line that went to and from few times a day between the city station and the small residential area with nothing but old people, post office and one grocery store in it.

Riku had been there couple of times before. Both times with school. First time had been for a class. They had spent the day gathering pieces of algae from different parts of the beach, which had been sent for university’s biochemistry lab for comparison between specimens from outside the city and inside the city (they had heard the results few weeks later in class, but Riku only remembered it being something between lines of inhabitation intensifying eutrophication). Second time had been when Kairi had forced him to go out with her and few other students. They had wanted to try surfing, and had heard that the beaches outside the city were much better for it, since the wind blew more freely to the coast there. Riku had ended up being decent in it, and Kairi had had fun pointing out how Riku looked like a professional while standing around with the board.

 

The beaches outside the city were also better for surfing because there was usually absolutely no one in there to see you fall of your board twenty times in a row, which made them also perfect place for Riku and Sora to go swimming.

 

There were other people in the train too, families mainly. It was a pretty Saturday, so Riku figured that they were going for a little trip to play on the beaches or to see their grandparents who lived there. But they wouldn’t be enough to disturb Riku and Sora, especially since Riku wasn’t going to take Sora to the biggest and most public beach there was.

When they had left the apartment, Sora had said that he knew what trains were, and that he had been in one before, or so he thought at least, but if Riku didn’t knew better, he would’ve thought that it was the first time Sora had ever even saw a train. It was already hard enough to get Sora to sit down for more than five minutes (it was the time he usually spent in eating, and he also usually fidgeted the entire time), so Riku wasn’t really surprised when for the whole hour it took for the train to reach their destination, Sora hadn’t sat facing the right way on his seat for longer than ten seconds. He had pressed his face against the window and pointed out everything he saw outside with a childish glee, and Riku just kept smiling back at him while suppressing the knowledge that this was Sora’s first time outside the city in ten years and he was happy because of that.

 

The station outside the city was tiny, only one rail and a closed ticket office that had been replaced with automat. Riku and Sora were the only ones who didn’t continue walking down the main road towards the village center, voices of the other passengers fading quickly as they stepped off the pavement to get down a grassy hill.

 

“You think this is a good place?” Sora asked, walking backwards to see Riku.

“So I can just get rid of my legs without anyone seeing?”

 

To be completely honest, Riku had almost forgotten already how Sora looked with his tail. Riku thought it was probably due him being used in seeing people with legs instead of dolphin tails, so his eyes got accustomed in Sora with legs in no time.

 

“Yeah, I saw no one here when I was visiting the last time”, Riku answered.

“It’s not in very convenient place, there isn’t any waves and it’s not sunny enough to just sit around.”

 

“Great!” Sora grinned widely.

“Because I have stuff I want to show you, and I don’t want to anyone to disturb us!”

 

Riku cocked his eyebrow.

 

“What stuff?” he asked.

 

“You see!” Sora said, and then turned around.

“Race you!”

 

Sora took of before Riku could answer anything, running down the hill and not even looking if Riku was actually following.  And Riku did not follow at first, as he stood approximately two seconds before there was a spark in his head.

The thing was, Riku was competitive. Awfully so. He had absolutely hated playing Uno (or any other game really) with his younger cousins, because despite trying not to, he would always end up taking it way too seriously. It was both frustrating and embarrassing.

 

He had, to his luck, always been good with sports. He was a fast swimmer (Riku explained to everyone by growing up on an island), he was strong quite naturally and it had always been easy for him to keep up his physique, and he had always been tall with long legs. Long and fast legs. His PE teacher had constantly tried to get him in to joining the track team in high school, but Riku had been too busy trying to get in the university he wanted to even consider it.

 

But he was still competitive as hell, and he wasn’t going to lose to a merman in _running._

 

So Riku sprinted after Sora, who seemed to hear him getting closer, because he looked briefly over his shoulder before laughing loudly and ducking his head down to run faster.

 

Warmth exploded in Riku’s ribcage, and made him grin as he sped up, catching up to still laughing Sora quickly.

 

“False start!” he yelled.

 

“You don’t seem to have any problems!” Sora yelled back, shoving Riku a bit to get ahead again. He was so light that it didn’t really make Riku stumble, but Sora still got one foot ahead because of Riku trying to evade him.

 

“Hey!” Riku yelled.

“Just wait, you dirty cheater!”

 

“I didn’t even hit you hard!” Sora screamed, when Riku tried to grab him, and the rest of the way down to the beach was more like a tag than a race. Riku was faster than Sora, yes, but Sora had already proven himself to be way more agile than Riku, so he managed to dodge Riku’s hands every time Riku got close enough to catch him.

 

Sora got in the lead once they got to the path to the cove, jumping from rock to rock like he had yesterday on the cliff, getting down way faster than Riku who had to slow down to watch his steps. Sora waited for him at the edge of the water, leaning slightly on his knees.

 

“I won!” he beamed at Riku.

“You have to buy me ice cream!”

 

“I didn’t agree in anything”, Riku said.

“And besides, you cheated.”

 

“Oh shush”, Sora grinned.

“You didn’t have any problems, and me having a head start is only fair. Your legs are like two times longer than mine.”

 

“You’re impossible, do you know that?” Riku groaned. Sora only laughed, happily, and yet again the slightest bit of irritation Riku had felt for essentially losing (though he’d never actually admit that) disappeared in a heartbeat.

 

Sora really did have a very contagious smile. It was pretty hard not to smile around him, and although Sora already smiled a lot, Riku did notice a difference in him today. It was a small difference, but Riku felt like something had clicked more in place and geared up Sora’s brightness by a notch. Yeah, staying at home would’ve probably been a bad idea.

 

The small beach in the cove was quiet apart from Sora’s laughter, stone walls of the hills around it keeping the noise inside. Riku had accidentally stumbled across the beach while trying to find a new place to collect algae from with Kairi, and Riku had more than once thought about coming back just for a moment of complete peace. Like he had said before to Sora, it was not a very popular spot to spent time. The hills casted large shadows at the sand, and despite wind gathering in the cove, it didn’t create waves for surfing either because of the confined space. With some many bigger and better beaches in the city and just a few miles from the cove itself, no one bothered to come down there.

 

Sora had turned around to look at the water. He took in a big breath, like he was purposefully trying to get ocean air in to his lungs. Then he grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head, tossing it to Riku.

 

“The last one in the water is a rotten egg!” he exclaimed, and then took off, making sand and water to fly up in the air as he ran in to the ocean and dove with a loud splash.

 

Riku turned his head away to not to get anything in his eyes.

 

“False start again!” he shouted. As an answer he got a pair of wet shorts hurling towards his face, which Riku evaded just in time. Oh, yeah, Sora didn’t need any pants to swim.

 

Sora pushed himself on the surface, shaking his hair out of his face.

 

“C’mon, we don’t have the whole day!” he laughed, flopping on to his back. He kicked the water with his tail, sending another splash on Riku’s direction.

“I know you know how to swim.”

 

“If you would just wait for a one moment”, Riku sighed. He slung his bag from his back, kicked of his shoes and folded his and Sora’s shirts on top of them. Sora was swimming in small circles when Riku waded in to the warm water and swam to him. Swimming always felt good, like the water was a second home to him (which is kinda was), and if Sora had been smiling even brighter than usually before they even got to the beach, Riku could swear he was actually emitting light right now. Yep, coming here was way, way better decision than staying at home. Riku felt like he had accomplished something.

 

“You feeling better?” Riku asked Sora.

“The changing from legs to tail seemed pretty effortless.”

 

“Yup! You have done a good job, doctor Riku”, Sora chuckled.

“But changing from legs to tail is always easier than from tail to legs. Might be because of the ocean.”

 

“You have to be in the ocean to change?” Riku asked, standing up momentarily on a shallower point where his legs reached to the bottom.

 

“I think so”, Sora answered.

“I haven’t yet been able to change from legs to the tail without being in the ocean water, and other way around.”

 

“Sounds like H2O: Just Add Water”, Riku said. Sora raised his eyebrows.

 

“What’s that?”

 

“It’s an TV show about girls who transform in to mermaids if they touch water”, Riku explained.

“Though if I remember right they do it no matter what kind of water it is.”

 

“Nah, not me”, Sora said.

“It’s just ocean water, and I actually have to change by myself.”

 

Riku put that down in his mental list of Merpeople information, next to glowing eyes, not half fish and probably magic. Speaking on information about merpeople…

 

“You had some stuff you wanted to show me?” he asked Sora, who swam slowly around him.

 

“Yeah, I do!” Sora swam a little closer.

“We haven’t really talked about merpeople stuff aside from the whistle-language, and I thought you’d want to know more and that it would be easier to teach you if I could show you!”

 

“Teach me what?” Riku asked. Yes, he did want to know more (it had been his original explanation for his actions…although now it felt more like an excuse than anything else), but there was something else to actually learn, beside the language? Riku knew he wasn’t able to change his legs to anything else, or at least he was almost certainly sure he couldn’t, so then what?

 

“Swimming!” Sora answered. When Riku raised his eyebrows at him, he continued.

“No, I mean like…more advanced swimming? You know, so you can be longer underwater and see there and all that.”

 

“Alright”, Riku couldn’t help but feel amused.

“So you are able to see underwater?”

 

“Yup!” Sora said. So that was one more thing to the information list.

“And hold my breath like really long, so I can dive more longer.”

 

Holding breath for longer was definitely something that Riku could associate with whales, and it made only sense that Sora was half dolphin when he changed his body. Dolphins had more alveoli’s in their lungs than humans, which allowed them to hold their breath longer than humans. Sora probably has similar kind of thing going on in his lungs as well. It would explain his running stamina too, as well as Sora not getting winded by climbing.

 

“I’m not sure about the holding breath part”, Riku told Sora. He did have a good stamina, too, but he didn’t recall being able to dive for longer than anyone else. Maybe a little bit longer, but not outstandingly. Not that he had actually ever tried. His aunt had strictly prohibited all contest of who could hold their breath the longest, and Riku had found it best to obey her.

“I am not a full merman, so I’m not sure if this stuff actually applies to me.”

 

Sora pursed his lips.

 

“Maybe you haven’t just tried for long enough”, he said, then smiling encouragingly to Riku.

“But you have the eyes, so the seeing part should work at least!”

 

“Okay? So now me having brightly colored eyes allows me to see underwater?” Riku asked. He should really start to actually write these things down, like Kairi did.

 

“Of course, that’s why they are so brightly colored!” Sora answered.

“I think. Because humans don’t have them, and they don’t see underwater.”

 

“Well, that’s not…entirely wrong”, Riku said. Or at least it was not an entirely wrong way of thinking and making up a hypothesis, as Riku had seen many of very similar ones made before by biologists and other scientists. And unlike the holding his breath for longer-part, Riku did see better under water than other people he knew.

 

It wasn’t like seeing above the surface. Riku did not see clearly in the water and the salt or chlorine still made his eyes sting, but if he concentrated just a bit, the world under the waves started looking like he was looking out from a dirty and convex window, never crisp nor clean but enough for him to see more than blurry figures and shadows. That was how he had noticed Sora not having gills in the first night.

He had put it down on his merpeople blood before, and it made sense, if his eyes were the most distinctive merpeople feature in him, that they would have some kind of abnormality in comparison of normal human eyes. It was nice to have (some kind of) confirmation to it, though.

 

“So that’s what Mr. Marine Biologist says?” Sora grinned widely.

“It’s a scientific thing, then.”

 

“But how does it work?” Riku asked.

“I can see a little bit better if I concentrate to it, but that’s kind of it?” Maybe it was another thing he just couldn’t do as good as Sora, because he wasn’t a full merman.

 

Sora seemed to somehow sense his hesitation, because he swam right next to Riku and swung his arms around Riku’s neck, awkwardly keeping himself anchored on place.

 

“You don’t know if you don’t try”, he said, poking Riku’s chin.

“You’re doing that expression where you put your brows together and it looks like you’re trying to find the eye of the worlds smallest needle. Kairi said you always too it when you’re thinking too much.”

 

Oh, so that was it. Kairi had told him way too many times that he often looked like he was trying to pick up a lock that was already open, but she had not described what kind of face he was actually making.

 

“Do you always gossip about me when I’m not hearing?” he asked, though he could only think of one instance where Sora and Kairi had been alone for a longer period of time without Riku being there. But he could still tease Sora a little bit, so Riku smirked slightly.

“Am I that interesting?”

 

To his surprise, Sora suddenly looked like he had trouble swallowing, and he quickly let go of Riku, kicking himself a little further away. He started swimming in circles around Riku again, faster this time, so Riku couldn’t get a good look on his face.

 

“Just stop thinking so much!” Sora was back at their earlier topic, completely ignoring what Riku had just said.

“You said that you can do it if you concentrate, so just try concentrating more!”

 

He talked faster, and he did sound a little tense to Riku. Had he said something wrong? Riku restricted himself from frowning.

 

“Sure, sure”, he said, smiling slightly to get the situation back to more relaxed again. He didn’t want to make Sora bothered.

“You’re the expert here right now.”

 

Luckily Sora seemed to have calmed down from whatever had hit him, because he slowed down and swam in front of Riku. Not too close, but Riku put it down on the tail that Sora was kicking back and forth to keep him on place.

 

“Great!” Sora was smiling again, and Riku was relieved. Maybe it had been nothing. Sora still didn’t initiate physical contact much, even if he did seem more relaxed with it now than few days ago (or maybe Riku had been imagining it), so he probably just got boundaries.

“Because I want to go swimming with you and show you more stuff and it’s easier if you could actually see them!”

 

Sora was speaking faster again, but not in a stiff way like a moment ago, but arms shooting up and coming down and splashing water on Riku’s face, tail kicking with force so Sora accidentally drifts further away. He looks so damn exited about whatever he’s speaking of, and it reaches Riku a second late that Sora is excited about doing things with _him._

 

Riku had thought earlier that wanting to people to like him was something he ought to have left in his teenage years. And that he shouldn’t get flustered when someone seemed to accept him anymore.

But right in front of him was Sora who smiled like the sun and who everyone seemed to like in seconds of meeting him, and he was excited about spending time with Riku. The tall and broody Riku who only had one friend.

 

The warmness that had previously resided inside his ribcage now seeped out of there and started to spread out to his stomach and throat, climbing up towards his face. Riku had to tamp it down before he actually started blushing.

 

“So let’s get in to it”, he said, hoping that Sora would get distracted from looking at Riku’s face.

“Show me the ways of grand sorcery.”

 

And Sora did get distracted, as he puffed up his chest and took a couple of very deep breaths, like he was attempting to store as much oxygen as he could inside of his lungs. Riku felt like he should do the same, though he only took one deep breath before Sora gestured with his hand, and they both dived down.

 

No matter how many times Riku did it, it was always hard to first open his eyes. It was most likely a human instinct, to not to let water get in to his eyes.

Riku waited for a second to adjust in the feeling of water all around him, before he pried his eyes open and let the salty water hit against them. It stung, but Riku gritted his teeth gently together to get past it, and he focused.

 

It didn’t take for long, luckily. It was like someone had placed a pair of glasses on his face, ones that weren’t quite right but still helped. Riku let himself relax. He pushed his legs down to keep himself from floating up, and he looked around for Sora.

 

There he was, Riku saw the tail from the corner of his eye. He had probably started to circle around Riku again, and Riku turned his head to his direction.

 

The first thing he saw where a pair of glowing, blue eyes looking back at him.

 

Riku didn’t know why he got so startled. The first thing he had ever seen from a merperson had been the glowing eyes after all, so he should’ve have anticipated them. But what flashed through his mind was Sora on the white floor, and the crawling feeling in Riku’s own skin, and his pulse spiked up so rapidly that for a moment that Riku forgot he was currently under water, and he inhaled water in his nose.

The feeling of water hitting back of his throat brought Riku back to the reality, and he quickly swam back to the surface to sneeze and cough it out.

 

“Hey, hey, are you alright?” Sora was soon next to him, placing a hand on Riku’s shoulder, blue eyes searching through his face as Riku rubbed his nose. Sora’s eyes were now only his regular sky blue. Not glowing.

 

“Yeah, yeah”, Riku cleared his throat.

“Your eyes were glowing.”

 

He was not going to admit that they got him startled, and Sora, fortunately, didn’t ask. He just tilted his head, looking a bit confused at first and then thoughtful.

 

“Oh, yeah”, he said.

“They do that. I don’t know why, but they glow if I do the underwater vision. I thought you knew?”

 

Riku was going to deny, but Sora was right. In a way, at least. Riku had told him about his first encounter before.

 

“I didn’t know when or why they do that”, Riku pointed out.

“And you weren’t under water the last time.”

 

“The last time?” Sora asked, confused. Of course he hadn’t noticed the glowing in the room, Riku thought. It had only lasted for a few seconds, and Sora had most likely been too dazed to realise it.

 

“Nothing”, Riku said, unwilling to talk about yesterday.

“And besides, my eyes don’t do that.”

 

“Well, not as brightly, I guess”, Sora said, letting Riku not answering him slide.

“But they do.”

 

Now was Riku’s turn to be confused.

 

“They do?” he asked, sounding probably very dumb. But the slight horror that had started rising up against his back made Riku completely unable to care.

Because Riku had lived his entire life among humans, and the thought of his eyes glowing, even faintly, where anyone could’ve seen was enough to make Riku’s stomach heavy.

 

Sora didn’t seem to catch his rising terror.

 

“Yeah, but don’t worry, it just means that you haven’t practiced enough!” Sora said, smiling encouragingly.

“I had to practise as well, so don’t feel bad about it!”

 

Not wanting to Sora’s good mood to flatten because of him, Riku twisted his lips upwards.

 

“I bet that I’ll learn to do it faster than you”, he challenged, lifting his chin up. And Sora took the bait. He huffed, and crossed his arms over his chest.

 

“Never going to happen”, Sora said. Then he grinned, and suddenly dove again. Riku half screamed, when Sora grabbed his legs and yanked him down, making Riku get water in his nose again.

 

“Sora!”

 

Sora laughed, and this time Riku already knew that his irritation would disappear at the sound even before it happened.

 

 

                                                                                                                               ⋆

 

 

No matter how good swimmer Riku was compared to humans, he had to admit his defeat to Sora. In one moment Sora would be at one place, and in just a second he was already at the exact opposite direction, beating Riku’s reaction time in every way.

Despite his competitiveness, Riku wasn’t bothered by it at all. Sora didn’t give him any room to even think about it, because he kept laughing and smiling and Riku just couldn’t think of anything else. He had sworn that Sora would have the best Saturday ever, and seeing him enjoying himself made Riku almost proud.

 

At some point Riku did have to get Sora out of water, though.

 

“It’s starting to get late”, he said, pulling out towels from his backpack.

“You have to eat something before you get all tired and crabby because you are hungry.”

 

Sora pouted, and submerged so Riku could only see his face from nose up.

 

“I’m not going to buy you that ice cream if you don’t now come out to eat”, Riku threatened.

 

Sora looked at him accusatorially, but he did lift his head up.

 

“Toss me my pants”, he said.

 

Oh, yeah, Riku had almost forgot about that. He threw Sora’s shorts at him, and then turned around. He heard a splash, and after short moment footsteps on a sand.

 

“So, what do we have for dinner?” Sora asked, appearing on Riku’s left side and grabbing the other towel from Riku’s hands.

 

“Hopefully something that fills your stomach”, Riku answered, digging through the bag. He had been pretty generous when packing food, since Sora ate a lot (which was only a good thing, because he was still a bit too skinny for Riku’s liking), and because this was supposed to be the best Saturday ever. And best Saturday ever needed a lot of good food. That was apparently what Riku’s paternal grandmother had preached, since Riku had heard it multiple times from both his dad and from his aunt.

 

They sat down, and Sora started happily munching on peanut butter cookies Kairi had given them earlier. Riku was hungry, too, from swimming for hours now, so for a while they both concentrated in eating.

Riku was not concentrated enough to not to let his eyes steer to Sora to look, though.

 

The sun was now shining in to the cove from the ocean, and the light hitting on Sora made his hair and skin look more golden brown than usually. Riku had often heard comments about his own appearance, mostly positive even when they were odd. People seemed to think that his light hair and skin made him look somehow striking, and Kairi was not the only one who had given attention to his eyes before. And there had been comments about Riku’s facial features, his arms, his height, pretty much about his everything. Many of them not said to his face, but people were not as discreet as they thought they were.

 

But right there, on the beach with sun shining down on them, Riku wished that he could show Sora to everyone that had ever called Riku good-looking and let them shower their compliments at Sora too. Because if someone took a picture of him right at that moment and told Riku that the person in it was real, Riku would not believe them.

When they had met first time, Riku had listed Sora’s features in his mind, the small nose and small chin, the curved cheeks and the softness that still stick to his appearance, and the big and so, so blue eyes, and sitting there now with sun making everything a bit more warm, Riku came to the conclusion that Sora was perhaps the most attractive person Riku had ever met in his life.

 

It wasn’t a sudden realisation. Riku figured that it was probably just the final step in this whole thing where Sora had made Riku like him instantly, despite it being against every aspect of Riku’s inability to make friends. So Riku just sat there, looking at Sora with this new information, until Sora noticed him watching and turned his face towards Riku.

 

“Is there something on my face?” Sora asked, rubbing his cheeks already. Riku chuckled, shaking his head.

 

“Nah”, he said, taking a bite from his sandwich and turning to look at the waves softly hitting the sand. He felt warm and light, which was a feeling Riku liked very much, in comparison of the throbbing heart and heavy insides his worry often made him feel. Maybe he would be embarrassed later, but not now.

Even the waves sounded light and warm, whisperingly laughing, and encouraged by his current inability to be embarrassed, Riku opened his mouth.

 

“Hey, Sora?” he asked.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Does the ocean ever talk to you?”

 

Because Riku never heard the voice when he wasn’t by the water, and yesterday Sora had looked at him like he and Riku both knew something when the voice had told him to follow the water, when Sora had said the same exact thing as the whispers coming from the waves.

 

“It does”, Sora answered, and Riku glanced at his smiling face.

“It talks to you, too? I knew it!”

 

“It doesn’t talk much”, Riku said.

“I heard it first time on the night we met. It told me to wait when I was leaving, because there was something for me to do. I then heard your whistling for help.”

 

“Makes sense”, Sora said, sounding a bit thoughtful.

“Because it always told me to help you.”

 

That got Riku to turn to look at Sora properly again.

 

“What do you mean?” he asked.

 

“It told me there was someone I had to go to meet”, Sora answered.

“I wasn’t allowed to go out on my own, but it was night and there was no one with me, and the ocean just kept telling me to go over and over again, and I got curious, you know? No one was going to know if I just took a little look. And then there were you, whistling, and I remember asking you if you were a friend.”

 

Riku remembered that night, too. It had been the first night he had went out to see if there even were merpeople around.

 

“And then you just kept coming back”, Sora continued, smiling warmly, looking like he was reminiscing. 

“And the ocean told me to help you, and that you were good, and I got even more curious. You never tried to come too close and you had legs all the time, even when you got in to the water, but you had our eyes and you could talk to me, and I wanted to know who you actually were.”

 

So it had been Sora the whole time. Sora who had been told to not to leave the island, but he still did, in the dark of the night, because the ocean told him to help Riku. Which had led him to getting stuck in an illegal fishing line and almost drowning, but there was absolutely no regret on Sora’s face when he smiled at Riku, brighter than the sun warming their skin.

 

“Are you sure you’re real?” Riku had to ask it out loud. Sora laughed.

 

“Positive”, he said. His eyes turned to look down at the sand for a second, before returning back to look at Riku.

“Hey, Riku?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“I’m happy”, Sora said.

“When I said yesterday that you are the nicest person I know, I meant it. Really.”

 

“I know”, Riku said.

“You are the nicest person I know, too.”

 

Sora’s smile was blinding. Riku smiled back at him, and then looked at the ocean.

 

Thank you, he thought, and even though he didn’t say it out loud, the ocean sounded like it still understood.

 

 

                                                                                                                               ⋆

 

 

Sora ended up falling asleep on the train.

 

It didn’t surprise Riku at the slightest. When they arrived back to the city station, Riku gave Sora few shakes, and when the only thing he got in response were quiet snores, Riku gave up trying to wake him. Instead he put the backpack on his elbow, and hooked Sora’s arms around his neck before hoisting him up on his back. Sora was easy to carry, with his forehead resting on Riku’s shoulder, and this time Riku even got his keys out from his bag without having any door casualties nor having to put Sora down before reaching the couch.

 

Riku had hard time falling asleep. This time it was only because of the warmth occupying his body and making his toes tickle, not because of anxiety swelling up inside his stomach and filling his head. He tossed around in his bed, trying to contain the stubborn smile that had planted itself on his face, before finally lulling himself in sleep after what felt like hours.

 

He was awoken from that sleep after what had felt only like a minute, by loud footsteps in the living room.

 

Riku blinked, and groggily lifted his head from the pillow. The footsteps went to the kitchen, and then back to the living room area, before stopping there. There was no creak of the couch, and Riku was sure he heard quiet mumbling. Was Sora up? Usually he slept like a log through the whole night, and nothing could wake him up.

 

Suddenly the crawling feeling on Riku’s skin was back, making shivers run down his back, and he was fully awake in a fraction of a second, getting up from his bed. The feeling was so strong, like he was standing in the room again, looking at the blue light and listening at the deep voice talking.

Alarmed, Riku hurried out of his bedroom and towards the living room, when he saw Sora standing next to the couch, his back towards Riku. In the dim light Riku only saw his skin faintly, the dark colour of his shirt and shorts and his brown hair muted.

 

“Sora?” Riku called, quietly, in case Sora was just sleep-walking or something, and Riku was only imagining the feeling.

 

Sora didn’t answer. He just stood there, unmoving, in a way that was honestly eerie and outright creepy.

 

Riku took a step closer. The crawling got stronger, and he had to yet again press his nails to his palms for not to scratch his arms.

 

“Sora?” he called again, and now Sora moved. He turned his head slowly to look over his shoulder at Riku, and Riku’s heart jumped.

 

Sora’s eyes were glowing again, and they were staring emptily at Riku.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Every single self-respecting story has a beach episode' I tell myself as I write this.
> 
> And there we go, the official 'he's pretty'-chapter is here. More mushy Riku was fun but oh so difficult to write. I wanted to give him more self-confidence with his feelings in this fic, although he has some issues with his self-image and anxiety. Idk if this was a little bit of a filler chapter, I just wanted them to have even a short break.
> 
> (sorry not sorry for the ending)


	9. Chapter 9

Riku was frozen.

 

He couldn’t move. His feet were stuck on the floor, grounding him right there, and he felt like even his breathing had stopped, despite the rush in his ears which clearly told him otherwise.

He could only stare at Sora, who stared right back, eyes glowing from the other side of the room like two haunting beacons.

Riku’s skin was on fire. Even in the room hadn’t the crawling feeling been this strong, but Riku didn’t really notice it. The only things he could focus on right now were Sora and the rising panic in his throat. _What was going on?_

 

Then Sora moved again. He turned all the way around, facing now Riku, who suddenly found his ability to move as well.

 

“Sora- “he could only take a half a step forward, when Sora spoke.

 

“Who are you?” he asked. Riku halted.

 

Sora’s stance had changed. He was standing back rigid, arms stiff and jaw tilted up in a way that Riku couldn’t associate with Sora at all. His blue eyes were still glowing and empty, but except for them, his whole appearance was hostile and incredulous. Like he was expecting Riku to attack him at any moment.

Riku’s pulse sped up even more.

 

“Sora, what are you- “why would Sora ask who he was? He knew him, and everything had been just fine few hours ago. He didn’t get to finish his question, because Sora spoke again.

 

“ _Who are you?”_ Sora asked, no, more like demanded. His voice was still Sora’s, but it didn’t sound like him at _all._ It was someone else, someone much older than Sora, and very, very full of hate.

 

A horrifying thought of _this isn’t Sora_ crept up Riku’s neck, and he had to fight to keep himself together.

 

“It’s me”, he said. It was perhaps not the best thing to say, but Riku put all of his concentration in staying calm, so he could speak at all in the first place. He was honestly surprised that his voice shook only marginally.

“You know me, what’s going on?”

 

Sora didn’t seem to be impressed about his words in the slightest. He just stared down at Riku, not giving in from his posture for an inch.

 

“I don’t know you”, he said, and Riku’s stomach lurched.

“Stay back, if you know what’s good for you.”

 

Riku didn’t listen to that. He took a step forward. He had to do something, anything to make Sora normal again.

 

“I said _stay back!_ ” Sora didn’t exactly shout, but he raised his voice like he was trying to command Riku. A rush of stinging heat went through Riku and made his skin scorching, and the floor beneath his bare feet actually felt painful to step on to, so Riku did stop on his tracks.

They stood there, staring at each other again for a very short moment.

 

“Who are you?” Sora asked again.

“A name.”

 

Riku swallowed. It burnt too.

 

“Riku”, he managed to answer.

“Sora, what is going on?”

 

Sora opened his mouth, but no noise came out. Instead the angry, demanding look on his face started to fade away, and by every second it turned out to be more confused, and Riku could feel his skin cooling down at the same rate.

Then Sora blinked, and the glowing faded as well, until after three more blinks the living room was dim again, and Sora’s eyes were their normal blue, only shining faintly in the moonlight coming from the kitchen windows.

 

“…Riku?”

Sora sounded like Sora again when he spoke now. He sounded sleepy, and he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, like he was trying to wake up. And then he actually yawned.

 

“What’s going on…?” Sora rubbed his eyes again.

“Why are you up?”

 

Riku didn’t know what to say. His tongue felt like it had glued itself to the roof of his mouth.

Sora tilted his head when he didn’t get an answer, and looked down on his feet.

 

“Oh”, he said.

“Why am I up?”

 

He looked up at Riku again, and Riku could very faintly see him frowning.

 

“Riku?” Sora took a few steps closer.

“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

 

What was wrong? Riku wished he actually knew.

 

“Riku?” Sora was now right in front of him.

“Are you okay?”

 

At that point the drumming of his heart finally left his ears, and Riku inhaled deeply to keep it were it belong.

 

“No”, he answered.

“And neither are you.”

 

 

 

The clock on the microwave read half past three in the morning. Riku had turned on the kitchen lights on top of the sink, so they didn’t have to sit in the dark while talking.

 

Sora was sitting on the other end of the couch, clad in Riku’s university hoodie again (he had apparently taken it to himself now, not that Riku really minded), and he was playing with the strings with his brows furrowed and lips pressed together. It was still very uncharacteristic for Sora to be so serious, and it was almost hilarious to see that kind of expression on his face.

 

Almost. Riku was relieved for the fact that he could find something even close to funny right now. His heartbeat had finally decided to slow down, leaving Riku’s chest faintly aching and ears hollowly ringing as he was trying to relax.

Sora was alright. Or at least he appeared to be, just very sleepy and confused about the whole ordeal. Riku was trying to wrap his head around that, and not let it go circles around the image of Sora standing there in front of him and speaking like he was someone else completely.

 

“Do you…” Riku hesitated for a second, “do you remember anything?”

 

Sora had appeared completely unaware of what had just occurred, instead looking like he had just woken up from a dream, and if Riku hadn’t known anything that had happened during the past couple of days, he would’ve believed that Sora had just been sleepwalking very vividly.

 

“Not really”, Sora yawned. He was more awake now, after Riku had told him what had happened, but he was still constantly rubbing his eyes in between tugging the hoodie strings.

“But, you know, do you ever have those dreams where you are not you but you still kinda are? Like you are playing someone else and you feel all that they feel but it’s still not you?”

 

Riku nodded. He was pretty certain that everyone had those kinds of dreams once in a while. Riku’s own had never been anything too imaginative, just him playing a role of usually someone from a book or movie or something like that. He had read somewhere that dreams were in reality constructed of things they saw while awake, and often had things in them that the mind had not paid attention earlier, so he believed his dreams were quite common.

 

“I just had one of those”, Sora said, letting go of the strings. He looked at his hands, thoughtful expression on his face.

“It’s a bit weird, but…it felt really real. Like I was watching someone’s memory.”

 

“That’s not the weirdest thing you have told me”, Riku said dryly. He kind of hoped it was, though.

“Do you remember anything from it? From the dream?”

 

What he had learned on the course of past days, was that he shouldn’t brush anything off and instead treat every single thing as a possibly very important information, no matter how ridiculous it sounded. And Riku was ready to listen to basically anything, if it only meant making a sense of this mess and therefore keeping Sora safe.

That was also probably the only thing that was keeping him relatively sane right now.

 

 

“I do”, Sora perked up a bit.

“There was this really huge library and a very big house, like a castle of some sort, and these boats that sailed around in the city.”

 

“A city?” Riku didn’t know why that got his attention, but there was a sudden urge to hear more about this city. _Where had he heard about a city before?_

 

“Yeah! I don’t really know how to describe it”, Sora unfolded his legs.

“There were these huge towers and weird lights and water everywhere, but no sky. Just this big roof that looked like a sky. Like it was underground or underwater or something.”

 

Hadn’t the voice said something about the city? Riku’s memory was not on it’s sharpest at just before four in the morning, but the had a very strong feeling that the voice had indeed talked about a city of some sorts, and underwater city sounded like something that would most logically have something to do with merpeople (how, Riku didn’t know, since merpeople did not breathe underwater).

 

“And there was this man”, Sora continued.

“Well, okay, there were other people too, but he stood out from others. I think it was because of the eyes. All the others had blue eyes, but his were golden.”

 

Golden eyes were not a normal eye colour, as far as Riku was concerned. His own eyes weren’t exactly the most normal either, but they were still a shade of blue, which was not uncommon even within humans. And what Riku had understood, blue eyes were very, very common within Merpeople. So it was no wonder Sora would remember that person in particular from his dream.

Riku had not been the one to see them, but for some reason the thought made him feel…unsettled, so to say. Like golden eyes suddenly meant threat deep inside his spine.

 

“Was there anything else about him?” Riku asked out of whim.

 

“I think I was angry at him”, Sora answered.

“Or not me, but the person I was in the dream. He was angry at him.”

 

 

“About what?” Riku asked. Why did this all sound so familiar?

 

“I don’t know”, Sora said.

“He had done something I…I mean, the person I was did not like. But he was very unsettling otherwise as well. You know those people who just _look_ evil, but everyone still trusts them?”

 

That didn’t raise Riku’s mood at all. Just after he had had this almost instinct-like feeling of the man with the golden eyes being unsettling, Sora went and said something like that. Of course.

There was a faint, foul taste in Riku’s mouth, and he quickly swallowed to get it away. Weird. Hadn’t he had the same kind of reaction, when the voice had spoken about…

 

“Funny”, Sora said, pursing his lips and twisting the strings again.

“I feel like I should know his name. Like I’ve just heard it somewhere else. It was very weird name, something like Xe- “

 

“Xehanort?” Riku finished for him, speaking quickly to just get the name out before the foul taste returned.

 

Sora’s face brightened.

 

“That’s it!” he said, his face falling fast.

“…. wasn’t that the name of the guy the voice talked about?”

 

“The one who did something bad over 200 years ago?” Riku nodded.

Sora shouldn’t, by any logic, be able to know what a man who lived over two centuries ago had looked like. Riku could only cling to a hope that Sora just had really, really good imagination and he had created an image of the man all by himself.

 

Something told him it was a false hope, after all what had already happened.

 

“Do you think this has something to do with what happened in that room?” Sora asked.

 

“I don’t have any other explanation”, Riku said.

“I just don’t know…”

 

The most frustrating thing in everything that had happened was that they didn’t actually know anything. And it was made even more frustrating by the fact that they had no way to actually gather information. This wasn’t something that they could just google and look up, and everything they had encountered this far had only offered them bits and pieces they had to put together by themselves, and they could still be completely incorrect.

And Riku was extremely frustrated because that meant he had absolutely no means to help Sora if something was actually wrong. Uselessness was something Riku had never been alright with.

 

Sora moved little bit closer to Riku on the couch.

 

“Think of the bright side”, he said.

“I’m not hurt or anything.”

 

“Thank god”, Riku sighed heavily. That was literally the only bright side in all of this right now.

 

He must’ve looked really sour, because Sora’s mouth turned downwards.

 

“I’m sorry”, he said, making Riku snap his head up really fast.

 

“What?” he blurted.

“You have nothing to be sorry about.”

 

Out of everyone who was involved in all of this, Sora was the only one who was totally innocent, and he was the last one who should apologize to _anyone._ And in the least should he apologize to _Riku_.

 

“Really?” Sora asked, brown turning downwards as well.

“Because all I make you do is worry and lose your sleep over my problems, when you don’t have anything to do with any of this.”

 

“You don’t have anything to do with this either”, Riku quickly pointed out.

“And that’s not true. I have not been this happy in ages, and it’s all because of you.”

 

Now that Riku said it out loud, he knew it was true. He had kept telling Kairi over and over and over again how he was happy with his life and didn’t want anything else out of it, but the thing was, Riku had never felt like he had truly belonged anywhere. Not before. There had always been something that had made him think that he didn’t fit in, whether it was where he came from, how he looked like, acted or who his mother was.

But now? Riku looked at Sora next to him on the couch, at three-fifty-five in the morning, and he couldn’t think of any place he would’ve liked to be more than right there.

 

God, when did he turn out be such a total sap?

 

Sora’s eyes widened a bit, and he stared at Riku for a few seconds.

 

“Oh”, he said then, turning his gaze a little lower, as his lips turned back up to an almost bashful smile he was seemingly trying to conceal. Riku’s heart involuntarily started to beat a little bit faster.

“Well, you remember what I said to you yesterday? On the beach? That I am happy. And it’s because of you, too.”

 

That was where Riku’s brain decided to run out of words to say, so instead he stretched his arms out a bit. Sora eyed him a couple of seconds, before understanding the gesture, and he moved closer to Riku, so he could wrap his arms around him. There was nowhere near as much hesitation as there had been at the first time, and Sora rested his head against Riku’s shoulder as Riku hugged him back.

 

“We’re going to figure this out together”, Sora said against Riku’s shirt.

“So you don’t have to worry anymore.”

 

“I think I would worry even without any of this”, Riku admitted.

“I just want you to be okay. To be happy. You deserve it after all this.”

 

“I’d be happy anyways”, Sora said.

“As long as I’m with you, I’ll be fine.”

 

Riku’s heart was beating rapidly in his chest for the second time for that night, but now for an entirely different reason.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                        ⋆

 

Riku was almost certain that his doorbell was ringing. He was at least fifty percent sure of it.

But at the same time, at least fifty percent of him was certain that his doorbell wasn’t ringing, so Riku didn’t move an inch nor did he even think about opening his eyes.

But the ringing was resilient, and after a while Riku started thinking that he was now maybe 75 percent sure of it being real. He did think about opening his eyes this time, but his lids were way too heavy, so he gave up pretty quickly.

 

Then the ringing stopped, and there was a clatter.

 

“Riku!” there was a voice shouting, and Riku thought it sounded a lot like Kairi. Funny, he didn’t know anyone else who sounded like Kairi than Kairi herself.

“Riku, if you don’t open this door now, I’m going to climb in through the window again, and this time I’m going to knee you in your crotch on purpose!”

 

No, that was definitely Kairi and not someone who just sounded like her. Riku finally blinked his eyes open, staring blearily at his living room ceiling.

 

This was new. Riku couldn’t remember the last time he had woken up on his couch. The last time he had slept somewhere else than his own bed was when he had fallen asleep on the bathroom floor while talking with Sora. The couch was way too short for him to get comfortable, so he usually took the effort to drag himself to the bed.

Speaking of Sora, Riku turned his head to look down on his chest.

 

Sora was sprawled on him, at least partially. His back was pressed against the backrest and legs were tangled between Riku’s while his upper body rested on top of Riku’s chest, and Riku could only think that his position looked very uncomfortable. Or maybe it was just him, because as said before, the couch was too short for Riku to be comfortable even when it was only him. Now he was already halfway towards the floor, and Riku feared that if he moved, he and Sora both would end up crashing down.

 

“I have given you my first warning!” Kairi’s voice was still shouting at him, and Riku realised that the clattering noise he had heard earlier had been her lifting up the mail slot.

“You now have exactly a minute left!”

 

“I’m coming!” Riku groaned. He dropped his other arm down and pressed his palm against the floor to brace himself, and then poked Sora with his free hand.

“Sora, up.”

 

Could he move Sora without waking him up? It shouldn’t be too difficult, since Sora hadn’t woken up to being moved around earlier either, and Kairi’s shouting had not even stirred him.

And Riku suddenly found himself really wanting to get off under Sora before he would wake up. Hugging was entirely different thing than sleeping together, and if Sora realised this, Riku’s poor heart wouldn’t be able to take it.

 

Cheeks blaring red Riku untangled his legs from Sora’s and rolled away from underneath him, letting Sora to drop on to the couch as he scrambled up and to the door.

 

Kairi was standing behind the door arms crossed over her chest, looking very unimpressed at Riku’s dishevelled appearance.

 

“There we go”, she said and walked past Riku inside.

“This must be the new record. When did you two go to sleep last night?”

 

At that point did Riku only remember to glance at the clock. The red numbers read 12:32 on the microwave.

 

“I don’t know”, Riku muttered and scratched his neck.

“Maybe at six?”

 

Sora had fallen asleep just before five in the morning, and Riku, believing that he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep anymore, had decided to stay up in the living room, just in case something would happen again, so he would be there ready to look after Sora. He remembered checking the time for the last time at 5:25, and judging from how he didn’t remember anything else past that, he must’ve fallen asleep soon after that as well.

 

He hadn’t meant to. Even though Sora did seem to like him, and didn’t mind the touch, Riku had some boundaries for himself he had decided were not appropriate to cross. Just because he thought of Sora so highly didn’t mean Sora thought about Riku the same way, and Riku didn’t want to feel like he was taking advantage of Sora’s willingness to be close.

 

“Geez”, Kairi sighed.

“Just what were you doing? Sora, wake up.”

 

She had walked to the couch, and was now leaning over Sora, poking him mercilessly to his sides. She did not stop until Sora actually woke up and started lazily swatting her hands away.

 

“I’m awake, I’m awake”, Sora mumbled and yawned loudly.

 

“Good”, Kairi smiled a bit at his ruffled hair and squinting eyes.

“Now go take a shower, you smell like ocean. Riku and I are going to make some very late breakfast, so we can go and buy you some decent clothes to wear.”

 

“Are you saying my clothes aren’t decent?” Riku asked, combing his hair with his fingers.

 

“They are way too big and make him look like he shoplifted them from somewhere”, Kairi answered. She grabbed Sora’s arms and pulled him up from the couch, pushing him gently towards the bathroom.

“Now chop-chop, we don’t have the whole day.”

 

“I’m going already”, Sora yawned again, and slouched to the bathroom. Kairi rolled her eyes before turning around.

 

“And you will help me with this”, she said, opening the cupboard and pulling out pans.

“I hope you have something actually edible in here. Put on the radio, it’s nicer to cook while listening to music.”

 

“You will make an excellent manager one day”, Riku mumbled, turning on the old radio his dad had given him years ago. It didn’t pick up channels very well and crackled a bit sometimes, but Riku didn’t use it so often it would’ve bothered him. It landed on a classical music station, playing some sad violin, but Riku let it be.

 

“That is the plan”, Kairi answered, taking the carton of eggs Riku was now handing her.

“So what did you do last night? You look like something has happened.”

 

Of course she would notice right away. Riku put the rest of the food on the counter and closed to fridge, leaning slightly against it.

 

“I’m not even sure myself”, he said, defeated, and started telling her starting from the moment he woke up to the crawling feeling on his skin.

 

Kairi listened to him while stirring the eggs on the pan, pulling her lips between her teeth while going over his words in her head.

 

“This isn’t the weirdest thing that has happened yet, you’re right. But that doesn’t mean it was any less scary”, she said, handing the pan over to Riku.

“But Sora was alright?”

 

“At least he appeared to be”, Riku answered, continuing the stirring as Kairi started to pull out the plates.

“He was just very confused when I told him.”

 

Kairi hummed thoughtfully.

 

“I know this doesn’t really calm you, but right now there’s nothing we can do for him, so we just have to believe his okay”, Kairi said.

“If he keeps doing weird things or it gets worse, then we can panic. But you know, I think he’s right.”

 

“About what?”

 

“About it being a memory”, Kairi said.

“The voice talked about things that happened over two hundred years ago, and the whole machine the light was attached to stopped working immediately as Sora got shocked and the light disappeared. Sora is able to change his form at will, so this isn’t the first time we have encountered something resembling magic.”

 

“So you think the light was a memory?” Riku asked.

“And it somehow transferred itself to Sora and he is now unconsciously seeing someone else’s memories?”

 

That sounded outright impossible and something straight from a fantasy book, but what didn’t, these days?

 

“That’s the only conclusion I can come to”, Kairi nodded.

“Many of the things the voice said and what Sora saw match pretty accurately, like the city and the man.”

 

“Xehanort, you mean”, Riku huffed. Why did just saying the name make him nervous? He had never even met the owner of the name, not that he even wanted to.

Kairi nodded, and Riku saw her mouth twitching down. Apparently, she didn’t like the name either, but she was just way better in concealing it than Riku.

 

“Anyway”, Kairi said.

“I know you might not like when I say this, but I think this could actually benefit us. If the memories belong to the owner of the voice, we might end up learning more about this Master Xehanort and why all of this is happening now.”

 

“I know”, Riku muttered.

“I just hope it doesn’t end up harming Sora in any way.”

 

“I know”, Kairi squeezed his hand comfortingly. The bathroom door opened at that point, and they both turned around.

 

“There we go”, Kairi smiled.

“Are you now actually awake?”

 

“I was awake the whole time”, Sora protested, giving his hair a final ruffle and making it stick out to every direction, before putting the towel on the back of the closest chair.

“What do we have for breakfast?”

 

“Eggs and bacon”, Kairi answered.

“And I also brought you some bread and muffins, just in case.”

 

“Oh yeah, muffins!” Sora declared happily. He then suddenly stopped on his tracks, eyes widening and mouth open.

“What’s that?”

 

Before Riku or Kairi could answer or even ask what he was talking about, Sora was already back on motion. He strode to the radio and turned the volume up, listening to the elegant violin and piano playing in brisk melody closely and not saying a word.

 

Riku and Kairi glanced at each other, neither of them not daring to say a word either, until the song ended and next piece started. That was when Sora took in a long, long breath.

 

“I know that song”, Sora breathed out.

“It’s Waltz No. 1 in A Major, Op.54, by Antonín Dvořák.”

 

“That is…oddly specific”, Riku said, hesitantly. Sora had not appeared to be familiar with any songs earlier, no matter how popular they were, so this was certainly new.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know”, Sora said.

“I’ve just heard it so many times before, dad liked to play it a lot.”

 

It took all three of them several seconds to realise what Sora had just said.

 

“Your dad?” Kairi repeated, hands flying up to her face in surprise.

 

“You remember?” Riku asked, his pulse accelerating. They both stared at Sora, who looked just as surprised as they did.

 

“I…” Sora swallowed briefly.

“I think so?”

 

“But how?” Riku asked.

“You haven’t had any specific memories before, so why now all of a sudden?”

 

This was huge. And incredibly important, if Sora really remembered something. That would mean that they had an actual clue of who Sora really was and where he came from.

 

“Like I know”, Sora said.

“It just popped in my head. I remember him playing this over and over again, but I can’t remember why or what he even looked like. I just know he did and I listened to him play it.”

 

“The shock may have jolted something”, Kairi said almost frantically.

“What if whatever that had made him forget has cracked because of the other memory, and the song triggered his own memories now?”

 

“The other memory? What?” Sora seemed to be completely lost now. Kairi took in a deep breath.

 

“Let’s sit down”, she suggested.

“Talking about serious matters is always more pleasant while eating.”

 

                                                                                                                        ⋆

 

The afternoon was sunny and hot, but thankfully not as humid as it usually was. The breeze coming from the ocean made the heat a bit more bearable as well, so Riku could almost ignore the way his shoulders were already warm as he walked down the dock.

 

Cid was there already, arms up to his elbows inside a boats engine.

 

“At last, someone bothers to show up”, Cid grunted as Riku stood beside the boat.

“Give me the wrench from the box, the twelve-inch one.”

 

Riku wasn’t bothered at all by Cid’s words. He was even grumpier while concentrating on his work, so it was nothing personal.

 

“Sorry”, he said, fetching the right tool from the box and giving it to Cid.

“I overslept and then Kairi stopped by.”

 

After a long discussion over their late breakfast, Kairi had taken Sora with her as they had planned.

 

“He still needs to get something to wear”, Kairi had said.

“And it would be rude to let Cid wait for too long.”

 

They had come to the conclusion that as it now seemed, Sora’s memories were most likely forced away, so it was entirely possible that something had now changed because of resent events, leading to his memories now coming back. Kairi thought that it might take some time, and Sora would probably need the same kind of triggers like the song, but it was a start. They would just have to wait.

 

Riku was happy about it, of course. This would mean a world to Sora. His nerves just weren’t very excited about the waiting part.

 

“You’re going to have a hard time once you start actually working, with those sleep habits of yours”, Cid huffed.

“Here I am, working two jobs on Sunday, and I tell you that it’s not going to get any easier.”

 

 There was a bang and clatter, and Cid cursed loudly.

 

“Christ all mighty, I’m going to give Johnson a piece of my mind about how to treat his engine when he picks this up.”

 

“So you’re taking up mechanic’s jobs again?” Riku asked. Cid had told him that he had worked as one before joining the Marines, but had not went back to working in full-time after returning from the service.

 

“Gotta have something to actually do, the fishing is getting too quiet these days!” Cid answered him.

“Give me the 24-inch one.”

 

Riku fetched the wrench obediently, and waited until Cid straightened up.

 

“Hop on and turn this up”, Cid waved at Riku.

“Let’s see how she sounds.”

 

Riku climbed on the boat and ducked in the cabin. The engine let out low coughing before starting up, and Cid stood there for a moment before nodding and gesturing him to turn the engine off.

 

“That sounds a lot better than it was at first”, Cid said.

“Let me tell you, she sounded like a stuffed manatee trying to swallow rocks when I first started her up. Fetch me the box so we can finish this.”

 

Riku praised himself for putting on a good amount of sun cream, as the sun shine straight at his neck as he crouched over the engine on the deck. They didn’t talk much during working, which was what Riku had expected, but what was not usual was the way Cid kept giving him from time to time. Like he was inspecting something while trying to be discreet about it. Cid was normally very outspoken, so Riku decided to wait and see what it was about.

 

He tried not to feel uncomfortable about it. There were people now who could possibly harm them, and Riku wanted to trust Cid and keep him separated from what was going on in his life right now.

 

Riku had to wait until Cid had decided that the engine was all good, and he closed the cover on top of it.

 

“There were some men earlier”, Cid started, giving Riku a look.

“They walked around here and asked everyone what kind of boat they owned. They were looking for the one I have.”

 

 A cold lump dropped in Riku’s stomach.

 

“They asked if I owned it”, Cid continued.

“And if I had visited some island earlier. Or if someone else had borrowed it.”

 

The lump grew even colder, and Riku had to fight to keep his face straight.

 

“What kind of men were they?” he asked, hoping his voice didn’t give anything out.

 

“Both tall, one quiet and one loud”, Cid answered.

“Acted like he owned the place. Got way too much on my face, I tell you.”

 

Cid gave him another look.

 

“Told them I haven’t been on any damn island”, he said.

“And that no one had borrowed my boat.”

 

Riku couldn’t stop himself from raising his eyebrows while looking at Cid, who huffed at his expression and shook his head.

 

“They reeked like problems”, he said.

“Like I was going to tell them anything they wanted to know. Thought you wanted to know, anyway. They were very persistent with asking if someone had borrowed this.”

 

The lump decreased, and Riku held back the sigh of relief.

 

“Thank you”, he said.

 

“Just stay out of problems”, Cid told him.

“I’ve told you before that you are a good son, and believe me, I’d hate to see something to happen to you. I’m not going to stick my nose in your stuff, you’re an adult and you can have your own life, but don’t get yourself into anything you can’t get out from.”

 

“I won’t”, Riku promised, and felt a twist of guilt for giving such an empty promise.

“Could you…if you see them again, could you tell me?”

 

“Sure”, Cid said.

“I’ll look after you any way I can. I don’t like people who mess up with others.”

 

In a way Riku hoped that he could just tell Cid everything and have someone else on their side as well. But he couldn’t possibly ask anything more from him. Riku didn’t want anyone else to get stuck in this.

 

So he just nodded.

“Thank you”, Riku said for the second time.

 

 

                                                                                                                         ⋆

 

 

Riku had to ring the buzzer a couple of times before Kairi answered.

 

“ _My apartment’s door is unlocked_ ”, her voice said from the small speaker, as the front door clicked open.

_“Come quick, you have to see this.”_

 

Kairi sounded odd, and that combined with her words made Riku run all the way up to the right floor, not even bothering to wait for the elevator.

He rushed in to the apartment, closing the door after him a little too harsh.

 

“What’s going on?” he asked, going further in.

“Kai? Sora?”

 

Kairi appeared in front of him so suddenly that Riku almost jumped back.

 

“Quick!” she grabbed his hand and pulled him with her towards the kitchen.

 

Sora was sitting at the kitchen table, drawing vigorously. Riku’s first reaction was to be relieved for the fact that nothing horrible was happening. Only then did he notice Sora’s very concentrated gaze, and the pile of papers in front of him.

 

Kairi tugged him to the table. Sora finished his drawing, and showed it to the pile with the rest of the papers.

 

“I think that’s it”, he said. He flashed a bright smile at Riku.

“I’m going to show you my new clothes in a minute, but look!”

 

Riku stood there, puzzled as Sora grabbed the papers and started arranging them on the table. The pictures were mostly lines and hastily coloured areas in the corner of one paper and in the middle of another and so on, and Riku didn’t really see what they were supposed to even be-

“Oh”, he said, when Sora leaned back and let him see them all together.

 

When the papers were put next to each other, all the lines connected, and Riku could very easily see that it looked like…

“A map”, Riku said.

 

Sora nodded.

 

“I felt like there was a click in my head and I had to draw this”, he said, looking pleased with himself.

“It’s to somewhere important, but I’m not exactly sure where…”

 

So they were in the same kind of situation as they’d been earlier with the carvings. Kinda. They had a map to somewhere, but this time the lines didn’t look even relatively familiar unlike the last time.

 

Kairi leaned on the table on the other side of Sora.

 

“I’m sure we can somehow transfer the pictures to computer and make a search like that”, she said. She looked over at Riku.

“Sora was sure this was the other memory doing things again.”

 

“Well, it’s not my memory”, Sora shrugged.

“And if it is, I can’t see how that’s a bad thing.”

 

“True”, Riku murmured, glancing over the papers. Sora had adopted the idea of ‘other memory’ easily after Kairi explaining her theory to him and honestly, Riku hadn’t expected any less. It was now pretty clear to him that thinking everything as a positive thing was some kind of mechanism for Sora to deal with stuff. So he wasn’t exactly surprised for the fact that Sora appeared to be completely unbothered by the thought of someone else’s memories being inside his head and probably messing up something, either.

 

Well, the messing up-part was what Riku had thought only inside his own head. After hearing Sora apologizing about worrying him last night, Riku was more than unwilling of voicing his nightmare scenarios out loud. Sora didn’t need to think that he was the one who was making Riku think horrible things.

 

So he could only wait and see. Great.

 

“I can take care of it”, Kairi promised.

“I know Riku still had homework to do for the next week he has to pay attention to.”

 

Riku tried his best to not to look guilty, but he was sure Kairi saw right through him.

 

“Sure”, he said.

“Thanks.”

 

Kairi smiled at them, sweetly but giving Riku a highly knowing look.

 

“Oh, and Riku, this is for you”, she said, turning around and going briefly through her bag.

“I promised I would get you a new one.”

 

She handed him a cell phone, almost similar to what Riku had had previously, only without all the scrapes and marks his old one had gathered during the two years of use.

 

Oh. Kairi had been actually serious about getting him a phone.

 

“Don’t say anything”, Kairi warned him, and Riku wondered what kind of face he’d been making.

“Or ‘thank you Kairi’ would be nice, but nothing else.”

 

“Kairi, seriously, you didn’t- “

 

“That’s a very strange way to say, ‘thank you, Kairi”, Kairi slapped him lightly on the chest with the back of her hand.

“It’s for me, too. I can be more in peace knowing that you can now call for help if you need to.”

 

“Okay”, Riku nodded, because Kairi had succeeded in guilting him by only saying the truth.

“Thank you, Kairi.”

 

“Now was it so hard?” Kairi snorted, and smiled at him.

“I got Sora one, too, so you can text each other while you’re at school.”

 

That got Riku looking at her dumbfoundedly again.

 

“Kairi, _seriously- “_

 

“You act like phones cost a fortune”, Kairi rolled her eyes.

“And this is really about your safety. If you can bring a stranger to your home just because you want to help and then act like you haven’t done anything valiant, then I can buy my friends goddamn _phones_ so I’ll know if they’re alright.”

 

The look Kairi was giving him was so hard, outright daring him to protest, and Sora behind her was shaking his head, so Riku swallowed every word he had been about to say.

 

“I’m sorry”, he sighed.

“I don’t want to make you worry.”

 

Kairi looked at him for a moment. Her gaze then softened, and she reached out her hand.

 

“Silly”, she said, placing her warm palm on his cheek.

“Of course I’ll worry about you. That’s what you do when you care about someone.”

 

From askance, Riku saw Sora watching them with an expression he couldn’t quite make out. He almost looked like he had just understood something, something great.

 

When he saw Riku looking, he flashed a bright smile, and then hastily got up.

 

“I’m going to show the clothes now!” he announced, running of to the next room before Riku could say anything.

 

                                                                                                                        ⋆

 

 

New, fitting clothes had actually made Sora look more decent and less like he lived on someone’s couch.

 

Not that Riku was going to admit it out loud. He was afraid that if he did, he would end up admitting that Sora looked really, really nice in the dark shirt he was currently wearing.

 

It wasn’t like Riku hadn’t already seen Sora completely without a shirt, but that had been when Riku hadn’t had all these other thoughts as well. And now he doubted he could even handle that anymore, when only seeing Sora’s arms and tiny bit of chest made his cheeks tingle.

 

How had he ended up being like this? Riku didn’t know. All he did know was that he was embarrassed of himself, and that he hoped Sora would think that any redness on Riku’s face was caused by the sun.

 

Way to go, Riku, he grumbled in his mind, just because you think he’s the most good-looking person you have ever seen doesn’t mean you’re allowed think the rest of this. What would Sora think if he knew?

 

What would Sora think? Riku didn’t know that either, and he wasn’t going to ask anytime soon. Now wasn’t really time for this. He should be focused in making sure Sora was alright and doing what was good for him, not getting flustered by a pair of arms like a goddamn fifteen-year-old. The last thing he wanted to do was to make this awkward just because he thought Sora was nice and handsome.

 

Sora, fortunately, appeared to be completely oblivious of Riku’s inner discourse.

 

“You think there’s going to be any good movies tonight?” he asked, turning to walk backwards on the sidewalk to look at Riku.

“If you want to watch anything. Don’t you have school tomorrow?”

 

“The first class is at ten”, Riku answered.

“We can watch a movie if you want to.”

 

“Nothing too gory”, Sora said.

“Those things are nasty. And- “

 

 He suddenly went quiet, and stopped.

 

“Sora?” Riku stopped as well. Sora was just looking past him, face blank, and fear started crawling it’s way up Riku’s throat again.

“What’s wrong?”

 

Sora blinked.

 

“I know them”, he said, and blinked again.

“Or him. I know who he is.”

 

Riku frowned.

“Who?” he asked.

 

 

 

It wasn’t too difficult to find the right address. Despite having a well-known university in it, the city wasn’t too big otherwise, and there weren’t many people with the exact same name in the way Riku imagined a bigger city would have.

 

Riku was more than nervous as they walked up to the door of small apartment near the industrial port. Sora next to him was fidgeting, but he looked to be more excited.

 

Riku didn’t understand him, but he couldn’t blame him either. Sora had an admirable trust in people, no matter how bad Riku thought those people were. For him, this was about seeing someone who had been there for the past ten years.

 

For Riku, this was seeing someone who he only had a desire to punch. Hard.

 

But he would have to ne civil. For Sora.

Though the punching would be for Sora, too.

 

Sora stopped on the top step, and looked around on the small threshold, in case he saw anything that had some familiarity to him and would confirm that they were in the right place.

 

Riku stopped behind him, really just to brace himself.

 

“Are you sure about this?” he asked. He sounded a bit strained, which made Sora to turn around and look at him.

 

“Of course”, he said. And the he knocked on the door.

 

They waited. It was silent at first, and Sora knocked again.

 

Then there were footsteps, and very slowly the doorknob turned, and the door creaked open.

 

In front of them stood a man with sandy brown hair and stubble over his chin and cheeks, and a pair of very light and very bright blue eyes.

Riku had never seen anyone looking so surprised as the man right now, when his eyes landed on Sora, who smiled at the man widely.

 

“Hi James”, Sora greeted him. James stared at Sora, then at Riku, and then again at Sora.

 

“Sora”, James said. He quickly glanced around the small yard, before grabbing Sora by the arm hard and yanking him inside.

 

Riku liked the man even less than before.

 

“Inside, both of you”, James ushered, almost slamming the door on Riku’s heels once he had stepped in. He almost pushed them further inside the house, looking out from every window they passed on their way.

He then finally stopped, and turned to look at Sora again.

 

“Where the hell have you been?” James asked, his pale blue eyes harsh.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry Riku, I don't like him either.
> 
> Wow, this chapter took a long time. This was supposed to be ready way earlier, but the last heat wave really got me (having +35C outside and inside the apartment doesn't do good to a human...). But we know have AC in the house (thanks mom!) and I have now couple nights of good sleep behind me, so here we go again!
> 
> (Oc's won't have any of the bigger roles, they're more there when I can't find any other character suitable for the role, as I want to keep the actual character crew relatively small)


	10. Chapter 10

Riku knew he had prejudices of Sora’s friends. A lot of them.

He had first shamed himself for having them, because he didn’t actually know these people or anything about them aside from what Sora had told him. That had quickly faded when Sora had told him about them, though. Even if Sora had said that they were still his friends, Riku couldn’t bring himself to trust him in that, to make himself believe that maybe they weren’t so bad.

Still, when they had searched where James Silao lived, Riku had held up some kind of hope about the meeting. He had hoped that there would be even a glimpse of worry, even a small sign that Riku had understood something wrong and they did actually care about Sora like they should.

 

But his frail hopes had been crushed in the exact second Riku got a good look at the man’s face. Everything Riku could see in the look he was giving Sora was harshness. Not even anger nor disappointment, which Riku would’ve understood as well. Instead he felt like was looking at a cold, solid stone wall rather than at a person.

The only points Riku had given to him and the others had been for at least keeping Sora alive and fed, but those points were also now starting to deteriorate. There was this very unpleasant, irritating itch Riku got while looking at James, like even his body was reacting to his mind disliking the man.

 

Sora chuckled at little, and then cleared his throat briefly.

 

“It’s a…a bit of a long story”, he said.

“To make it short, I got in trouble and Riku here saved me, and he’s been looking after me for this whole time!”

 

Sora moved closer to him and locked his arm with Riku’s, which made James move his eyes to him as well. There was a slight raise of brows, but absolutely nothing else in James’s expression changed.

 

“One of us, I see”, James said.

“Haven’t seen you before.”

 

Good for you, Riku wanted to say, but he bit his tongue in time.

 

“I’m not really acquainted with other merpeople”, Riku answered curtly. He could restrain from being hostile, but he wasn’t going to pretend he liked the man.

“We have some questions.”

 

Sora could catch up with other things a little later, but Riku was going to get what he wanted right on the spot. James should know at least something, and he owed the information to Sora for lying to him intentionally for so many years. And Riku was tired of trying to guess everything and living on the brink of unknown.

There was another raise of eyebrows from James.

 

“Do you, now?” he asked, though it sounded more like a statement.

“Sit down. I’m going to tell the others that Sora is here. Then you can ask your questions.”

 

James gestured shortly to the chairs in the small kitchen area, before disappearing behind the dividing wall between the two main rooms of the house. Sora glanced at Riku, before pulling himself a chair. Riku didn’t feel like sitting down, so he just moved to stand next to Sora, tapping his fingers against the back of the chair.

The kitchen area was really bare, save for an old microwave on the corner of one counter. The house wasn’t that big, so Riku could see around easily from where he stood. The other room right next to the kitchen was just as bare, with only a shelf holding stacks of magazines on the other wall and a lonely armchair on the other. It didn’t really look like the house was that much lived on in the first place.

 

Riku did remember Sora saying that all of his friends tented to come and go a lot and that Sora himself was really an odd one in that sense, as he stayed in one place, but Riku had not quite thought of it being like this. There wasn’t anything personal in the house, and Riku couldn’t even see suitcases or anything that would have indicated travelling a lot.

That was odd if you asked Riku.

 

He was just about to ask how often James in particular had even cared for Sora in the first place, when the man came back. He leaned against the counter, and looked at them for a few seconds, almost as he was waiting for them to say something.

 

Then crossed his arms over his chest, and turned his eyes solely at Sora.

 

“So you got in trouble?” James asked, raising his eyebrows a bit.

 

“Yeah, um, I was out one night”, Sora said.

“And I know that I was not supposed to, but as you said, Riku is one of us, so there’s no harm done! But I got stuck in a fishing line and he took me home with him until I was well enough to go back, and I was really going to, but then these men appeared on the island, so I really couldn’t.”

 

James raised his eyebrows even more when Sora got to the last sentence.

 

“Men?” he asked, rather calmly in Riku’s mind. Odd, again. After all the lies about humans being a threat and making an effort to keep Sora on the island, Riku would’ve expected a bigger reaction.

 

“They came to the island and started digging around”, Sora explained.

“I didn’t actually see it, but Riku went there to investigate, and it turned out they were looking for something. We thought it might’ve be this.”

 

He put his hand in to this pocket and pulled the key out, dangling it in his fingers so they could all see it.

 

“It’s important, right?” Sora asked.

“It opened the door to the room, so- “

 

“What door?” James interrupted Sora curtly, making Sora snap his mouth shut and blink couple of times, while Riku’s mouth pressed to a tight, irritated line. Interrupting wasn’t the biggest crime, but Riku was already done with James in the first place.

 

Sora didn’t seem to mind anywhere near as much as Riku did. He just continued talking like nothing had happened, describing their trip to the cliff in his usual shortcutting way. James didn’t interrupt him this time, as he only continued to lean on the counter with his arms crossed and eyebrows still slightly raised.

He was really taking this too calmly to Riku’s taste.

 

 _You can’t be suspicious of everyone who you don’t like,_ the part of his brain which was really out there to shame his every action whispered.

 

If he’s not nice to Sora he’s suspicious already, Riku shut it down harshly.

 

Don’t trust anyone. They had agreed on that, or at least Riku had. Maybe he was being too judgemental too early, but it was not like just anything was going to make him like James anyway. But what did he know, the man could easily still be a good ally, even with his questionable way of treating Sora.

Still. Riku was going to be petty, if that was the right word, and treat everyone like an enemy as long as they proved otherwise. Overreacting? Maybe. But Riku was way too done to care right now.

 

“So, in conclusion”, James said slowly as Sora finished.

“You are now having flashbacks of someone else’s memories?”

 

“Yeah”, Sora nodded.

“Is that possible? Like at all? I don’t think they’re mine, not that I actually know…”

 

“They’re not your memories”, James said.

“And I am not sure about what the Guardian was really capable of, but transferring memories was most likely more than easy for him.”

 

So Kairi had been right again. Riku should’ve guessed that.

 

“Who is this Guardian, anyway?” Riku asked. All of this had happened because of him, and Riku wanted answers.

 

James glanced at him shortly.

 

“The Guardian was the keeper of the knowledge of his people”, he said.

“I don’t know much about him, other than that. The last time he was seen was ten years ago, when he brought the key and Sora in the island.”

 

That wasn’t nearly as much as Riku had hoped for, but at least it answered some questions.

 

“So this key really belonged to him before?” Sora peered at the key on top of his palm.

“What do I do with it, now? There wasn’t anything else in the room, so we don’t need this anymore, right?”

 

“I do not know what other use the key would have”, James said.

“But from what I’ve understood, it still has some.”

 

He scratched the back of his hand shortly. There were two prominent lines in the skin, going from his knuckles to his wrist, crossing each other in a way that the lines looked like a big X. They looked like scars, freshly healed ones, though Riku couldn’t see how someone would get two straight scars like that on accident.

 

“But what?” Sora asked.

“Why was it so important in the first place to keep it away? So that Master Xehanort-guy wouldn’t find it?”

 

James didn’t answer right away. His fingers curled into fists shortly before relaxing again, and Riku could have sworn that his face had twitched just a little bit when Sora had said the name Xehanort.

 

“Like I said, I don’t have answers for that”, he said.

“But I can imagine that you’re going to get your answers soon enough.”

 

“Do the others know more, then?” Sora asked.

“That’s great, I’m tired of having to just guess stuff. I bet Riku is too, this is really not good for his nerves. You think they’d know anything about my parents? Do you know anything about them?”

 

James shifted his weight, straightening up a bit.

 

“No, I don’t”, he answered shortly. He scratched the back of his hand again, and this time Sora noticed the gesture too.

 

“That’s new”, Sora said, tilting his head. He jumped off of the chair, taking a couple of steps closer to James.

“Where did you get that?”

 

James glanced down at his hand, not saying anything right away again.

 

“Just a little accident”, he said then. He looked out of the window again, very briefly. Riku almost didn’t notice it.

 

Sora certainly didn’t. He stepped even closer, stopping right in front of James and peered down at his hand.

 

“What kind of accident leaves those kinds of marks?” he asked.

“All of my cuts are all messy.”

 

“None of your concern”, James said. He looked out of the window again. This time Riku saw it clearly.

 

“Are we waiting for someone?” Riku asked.

“You said you told the others that Sora is here now. Are they coming over?”

 

It didn’t help that Riku didn’t like James in the first place, and the short answers full of don’t knows and shoulds were really starting to piss him off. Sora was really too nice for his own good if he was truly able to put up with this kind of behaviour for years. It had only been less than hour and Riku was already done with it.

 

James gave him another short look.

 

“They should be coming”, he said. Great. Another should-something.

 

“And they actually know something?” Riku was really starting to get annoyed.

“Because you haven’t given answers to absolutely _anything._ ”

 

“You act like I owe you something”, James said, raising his other brow expectantly.

“Funny, because I fail to see how this concerns you in any way, since you are not acquainted with other merpeople in the first place, by your own words.”

 

“Oh, it does”, Riku hissed.

“Because it concerns Sora, and unlike you, I actually care about him.”

 

Sora turned to look at him over his shoulder, and James’s brows came down to a very deep frown. There was clearly a look of irritation on his face, but Riku didn’t care, because he had now opened his mouth and started it.

 

“You don’t owe anything to me”, Riku said, almost between his teeth.

“But you owe everything to Sora. He got his life ripped away from him and replaced with you. All I have seen you doing is being rude to him and then giving half-assed responses. Not that I had a very good first impression of you anyway in the first place.”

 

Yeah, there was definitely irritation written all over James’s face now. He stood up even straighter and dropped his hands to his sides, looking straight to Riku over Sora’s head. It was the longest look he had given Riku during this whole time, and he should’ve maybe be worried for the fact that it was not much of a look, but an angry glare.

 

“And what kind of first impressions do you have?” James asked. Sora was starting to look a little alarmed, and he stepped a couple of steps back.

 

“Hey, calm down, both of you”, he tried to grin despite the slightly worried look in his eyes, but Riku’s mouth didn’t run on time with his consideration anymore.

 

“My first impression was that you had a completely wonderful person who needed and deserved everything, and you decided to ruin it all by giving him nothing”, Riku answered, glaring right back at James.

“Do you know how much it hurt to hear that he had never been hugged before? It hurt like fucking hell, and it wasn’t even about me. Did you ever even think of what you were doing, or did you just decide not to care? Not that it matters, because both of those options are absolute shit.”

 

Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have said that. Riku was pretty sure he could audibly hear something click in James, and the glare turned from irritated to outright murderous.

Riku hadn’t thought of himself being easy to anger, or to lash out like that, but something in the man just got straight under his skin, and Riku just wanted to take Sora with him and leave and never come back.

 

“So you are saying”, James started.

“That I don’t care about Sora, and because of that, I am not a good person?”

 

He still looked irritated, but there was something weird in his voice. Like a crack.

 

James started to take a step closer, but he couldn’t get very far.

 

“Hey, now”, Sora said. He was standing between James and Riku now, shoulders squared up almost defensively.

“I’m sure Riku didn’t mean it like that – “

 

“So he was right”, James ignored Sora’s words completely.

“You really are all the same.”

 

“Um, James?” Sora said. He was really, really starting to sound alarmed.

“What’s going on? You’re acting really weird. I’m sure we can talk about this – “

 

“Who was right?” Riku demanded.

“Who are you talking about?”

 

There was suddenly a familiar chill running down his back. Run, it urged. Just take Sora and _run_.

“Sora”, Riku reached his hand.

“Come here, now.”

 

“What?” Sora turned to look at him, which made him take his eyes off of James. Riku saw the man move before Sora did, but they were both too late.

 

Sora yelped in surprise as James suddenly surged forward, and wrapped his arm around his neck. His forearm pushed Sora’s chin up, which made Sora’s mouth snap shut and the yelp died abruptly with a quiet choking sound and a hiss from behind his teeth.

 

Riku froze to his place.

 

James was not really taller than Riku was himself, but that made him still a head taller than Sora. And even if Sora was physically fit, James was a bigger man. Sora gasped slightly and tried to pry the arm off, but that only made James visibly tighten his grip, erupting another choking noise from Sora.

 

If Riku had focused on it, he would’ve recognised the heat that outright flared in his chest. But right that moment it blended together with the cold weight that pressed his stomach down, making it unrecognisable to his mind, which was solely focused on Sora in front of him.

 

“Let go of him”, Riku said, low and glaring at James.

 

James didn’t even budge. He kept staring at Riku over Sora’s head, light blue eyes not even blinking.

 

“I said let go of him!” the only thing that kept Riku from raising his voice even more was the fact that James was currently keeping Sora in a chokehold, and he didn’t want to risk setting the man off further.

 

Had James really gotten this angry about Riku being angry at him?

 

 _This is what makes you and Sora different,_ his mind sneered at him. _Sora was able to get along with him for ten years, and you blew the whole thing up in an hour._

 

At least James not moving meant that he didn’t tighten his grip of Sora more, and Sora thankfully wasn’t making any choking noises anymore either. His cheeks were maybe a little bit red, but not in a way that looked like he wasn’t getting enough air.  Sora had probably realised that struggling wasn’t going to get him anywhere, so he was still at the moment as well, eyes blown wide and looking frantically between Riku and James.

 

 James still didn’t move, and Riku glanced his teeth together. He needed a different route in this. He couldn’t just rush to him, that would be outright risk.

Now would be a great time to be good with words. For a fraction of second Riku hoped that Kairi would be there, too, but he quickly dismissed it, feeling guilty of even thinking about wanting Kairi to be in danger too.

He had caused this, so he would have to deal with this by himself.

 

“What are you doing?” Riku asked. He wanted to sound less harsh, less demanding to be safe, but he didn’t exactly have means to calm down.

 

James’s eyes moved, peering on Riku’s face, calculating.

 

“He was right about you”, he said.

“You are all the same, judging us because we are not good enough for you.”

 

“What do you mean?” Riku asked.

“Who are you talking about?”

 

“You think of us like we are lesser than you”, James hissed.

“Because you are allowed to care, you are allowed to feel, and because of that you think you are precious little thing. Precious little thing able to love because you have a heart to love with, and you think we are bad, bad, _bad!_ ”

 

There was another crack in his voice, and this time Riku heard it clearly. It was more like a crackle, reminding Riku distantly of his old radio trying to tune in to a channel, and cold shivers ran down his whole body, because it was not a sound that any living thing should be able to even _make_.

 

James’s whole body twitched almost violently as his voice rose, and the movement caused Sora’s neck to jerk up. The whine he made was short and smothered, but it still cut Riku’s ears.

 

“Stop!” he couldn’t stop himself from shouting.

“You’re hurting him!”

 

Fuck, fuck, _fuck,_ this wasn’t working at all. The situation was becoming more and more bizarre every moment, in a way that smothered the heat in Riku’s chest to make more room for panic to rise in. It didn’t matter that Sora didn’t actually look like he was in pain, since even the smallest noise of discomfort was enough to push Riku over the edge now.

 

“Am I?” James glanced down at Sora.

“He can at least feel it. And that is only fair, because all of this _is his fault_!”

 

“Shut up!” Riku screamed, the heat surging back on the surface again.

“Nothing is his fault! He hasn’t done anything to you!”

 

“I was made because of him!” James looked at Riku again, eyes hard as steel.

“It’s all his fault!”

 

 _Made?_ There were shivers again on Riku’s skin, the crackling noise ringing in the back of his head, his mind desperately trying to connect it all. He opened his mouth, but James was still speaking.

 

“But he will change it”, he said, and then made a noise Riku thought was laughing, but it was too sharp, too hollow and mechanical to actually sound like it.

“He will change it after you all just watched.”

 

“Who will?” Riku asked.

 

His brain must’ve been too occupied with whatever was going on, that it only dawned to him at that point that James definitely was not on their side. And that right now, it could only mean one thing.

 

Riku’s throat constricted.

 

“Who did you tell we are here?” he asked, even though he knew the answer already.

 

Sora’s eyes widened even more, as if he had now understood as well what was really going on. He looked at Riku, then at James, and Riku saw his eyes hopping around the room for one, really fast second.

 

Then Sora suddenly jumped up with force, and for someone who was able to break a door with one kick of tail, it was a lot. The top of his head collided with James’s jaw hard and snapped the man’s head back, making the center of his gravity fall backwards as well. It was enough for Sora to squirm somewhat out of James’s grip and ram his entire body against the man. Despite his small stature, Sora was still strong, and now that he wasn’t in a chokehold he was actually a match for a man larger than him.

 

James’s hands flew back as he started to fall, making him let go of Sora entirely, and Sora wasted no time dashing away from his hands. James managed to stop himself just in time before falling flat on his back, but he had no time to regain his balance. As soon as Sora had been moving away from James, Riku had surged forward. His fist came in contact with the side of James’s jaw hard, sending him crashing head first to the corner of the stone countertop.

 

There was a loud, sickening crack, and James crumbled to the floor. A heavy silence fell in to the kitchen, disturbed only by rasping of Riku’s rapid breathing.

 

He almost jumped out of his skin when Sora’s hand was suddenly on his arm, grasping tightly.

 

“Are you okay?” Sora asked.

 

Riku was sure that his mind actually exploded right there.

 

“Wha-what?” he gasped, his thoughts ceasing from existence.

“You- you are asking me what?”

 

Sora didn’t get to answer anything and Riku didn’t get to ask more questions, because James groaned and moved.

 

Riku’s whole body tensed up, his eyes flying back to the man on the floor, who was starting to get up. James rose up to his elbows, and turned his head.

 

There was a big gash on his forehead, starting from all the way from his hairline and narrowing down to his nose, dividing his face in two. The skin had cracked, revealing the whiteness of the skull, which had a large dent that cave in to his head.

Riku was already starting to feel sick when he noticed there was no blood.

 

There was no blood. James didn’t even seem to really notice that his face was split in half, and that his skull was visibly damaged, his eyes fixated on Sora and Riku like a pair of lenses. He moved his jaw, and the crack widened, reaching down along the bridge of his nose and to his cheek, revealing more of the whiteness beneath it, which Riku now noticed was too smooth and too perfectly white to be made of bone.

 

Then his mind turned back on, and the crackling noise, the mechanical laugh, _I was made because of him_ suddenly horrifically made sense.  

 

Riku and Sora stared as James slowly moved, Sora’s nails digging in the skin of Riku’s arm as Riku was trying to make his head believe in what he was seeing right now in front of him.

 

Then there was noise at the door. And Riku remembered the question he had asked James and what it meant.

 

Riku twisted his arm out of Sora’s grasp, and then grabbed his wrist in turn.

 

“ _Run.”_

 

He didn’t need to tell Sora twice. The word wasn’t even completely out of Riku’s mouth when they were already moving, bolting through the small house. There was a backdoor next to the lonely armchair, which Riku didn’t bother to open up using his hands. He slammed his shoulder against it, and the poor, thin wood gave up easily, leading them to the tiny backyard.

 

There was clearly someone after them. Riku heard noises from inside the house behind them, and then fast footsteps.

 

“Jump”, Riku hissed at Sora, who thankfully understood instantly what he meant. The fence between the yard and the neighbouring backyard was not too high, and just as they landed on the other side, Riku was someone stepping out from the backdoor.

 

Sora seemed to notice it too, because he fastened his pace, so that Riku had to almost run after him, and they cleared the yard and the next fence not daring to look behind them anymore.

 

Riku tried to listen if they were chased, but the drumming of his heart and feet drowned the possible footsteps. He hoped that meant there was nothing right behind them, as they jumped over the last fence and landed on the sidewalk.

 

“What now?” Sora asked, looking around now as they slowed down.

 

“Just keep running!” Riku told him, pulling him along by his arm.

 

The industrial port was on the other side of the town than his apartment, and right now that was too far. Riku cursed under his breath, going through the layout of the city inside his head as they ran down the street.

 

“Turn to the left!” Riku shouted at Sora.

He didn’t want to put Kairi in danger, put right now she was their best shot. It would be faster to run through the center of the city than along the beach, and hopefully it would made chasing them a lot harder as well.

 

They dashed over the road, causing one car to blare the horn at them, but Riku didn’t saw any cars with familiar looking men inside, and he allowed himself the be momentarily relieved as they got to the safety of houses on the other side.

He would allow more of it when they actually got to the safety of their destination. Riku thanked his good physique that kept him running even when they got further and further away and closer to Kairi’s apartment. He prayed that they had really shaken off whoever that had been chasing them as they run through the gateway to the house.

 

Sora was at the door first, fingers finding the right name and buzzer next to it. Riku tried his best to catch his breath as the speaker came to live.

 

“ _Hello?”_

 

“Can you let us in?” Riku gasped.

“Quickly, please.”

 

 _“A second”,_ Kairi sounded like she understood something was wrong, and the front door clicked open. Riku ushered Sora inside first, pushing him to the elevator.

 

Sora leaned heavily on to the wall as the elevator started to move.

 

“Do you think we’re okay?” he asked, breathing deeply in and out between his words.

“I didn’t saw anyone coming after us, at least.”

 

“Let’s hope so”, Riku sighed.

 

Kairi was already at the door, leaning in to the hallway as they stepped out of the elevator.

 

“What’s wrong?” she asked when they were in, pulling the door close behind her.

“You just left few hours ago and now you come running back, did some- oh Sora, what are those?”

 

Kairi stepped closer to Sora, raising her hands to brush her fingers gently against his neck. There were already bruises forming, not too dark, but dark enough to Riku’s disliking.

 

Riku sighed, long and hard.

 

“Sora suddenly remembered the name of his…friends”, Riku grimaced when he saw Sora flinch ever so slightly at the word.

“And we were able to track him down. It…it didn’t go well.”

 

Because Riku just had to open his big mouth when it was needed the least.

 

Kairi frowned.

 

“What happened, exactly?” she asked, taking her hands back when Sora twitched as her fingers pressed on to the bruising skin.

“Are you hurt?”

 

“I’m alright”, Sora assured her. He wasn’t smiling, Riku noticed.

“These are the worst damage, if we don’t count that I bit my tongue, but it doesn’t hurt anymore.”

 

Kairi cocked her head to the side, giving Sora scrutinizing look. She seemed to believe him, because her eyes then moved to Riku.

 

“Riku?”

 

“I’m fine”, Riku mumbled.

 

“Your knuckles are raw.”

 

Riku glanced at his hand. She was right, the skin was red and chipped, few drops of blood already dried on them. Riku hadn’t even noticed it, and only now that Kairi said it, he could feel the dull throbbing.

 

“It’s fine”, he said.

“It doesn’t hurt. I didn’t even notice before you said it.”

 

Kairi sighed, and shook her head.

 

“Still, let’s wrap it up”, she said.

“You went to see who, exactly?”

 

“His name is James Silao”, Riku said.

“He lives near the industrial port.”

 

“And he’s one of them who had taken care of Sora before this?”

 

“Well, he’s not doing it anymore”, Riku muttered.

“Apparently he has switched sides.”

 

Worry flashed over Kairi’s features.

 

“Did he attack you?” she asked.

“Are you sure you are alright?”

 

“He didn’t get to do much”, Riku said.

“He did grab Sora, but Sora got away by himself, but…”

 

The image of James on the kitchen floor, face cracked and dented but still alive still burned Riku’s eyes, and he could hear the crackling noise vividly when he thought about it.

 

James wasn’t human. And he wasn’t a merperson, either.

 

Riku wasn’t sure if James was even really _alive._

 

He looked over at Sora, who looked back at him, his eyes telling that he was thinking the same exact thing as Riku was.

 

“But what?” Kairi asked.

 

Riku wasn’t sure what to even tell her.

 

“It looks like this is worse than we imagined”, he said.

“Much worse.”

 

                                                                             

                                                                                                                      ⋆

 

Kairi’s apartment was a lot cooler during the nights than Riku’s apartment.

 

Riku rolled over on the futon, turning to stare at the ceiling after staring the wall for the past hour. The clock on the other side of the room ticked softly, and Riku tried to make his brain occupied with counting the seconds.

 

Kairi had absolutely refused to let them leave her apartment. Riku had not seen her like that before. Usually Kairi was the calm one who kept her nerves under control, even in the situations where Riku couldn’t do it anymore.

Not tonight. Tonight Kairi had paced the room, almost bit through her lip with all the worrying it with her teeth, and Riku had heard her voice rise so high couple of times that she stopped sounding like Kairi altogether for a few seconds. The only thing that had stopped her from calling the police was the fact that none of them knew _what_ they would even tell them. No one would believe if they’d say that one of them was a merman, one of them was partially a merman, and there was an evil group who were trying to kidnap them to get a magical key for someone who was supposedly several hundred years old or at least pretended to be. And that they had been assaulted by a man who turned out to be a robot or  _something._

 

Yeah. Riku was pretty sure that had been what had thrown Kairi off. He didn’t blame her. She had taken all the stuff about merpeople so well, not questioning anything even once, and to be honest, all of that was now the new normal for them.

This was completely out of the normal, and that combined with the bruises on Sora’s neck and the raw skin on Riku’s knuckles had reminded them for once and for all that this was real and serious. That they could actually get hurt.

 

Riku didn’t blame her at all for panicking. In fact, Riku was surprised for that he himself wasn’t panicking more.

 

Maybe it was a delayed reaction. Maybe his mind was in some kind of shock that made it hard for him to actually believe in what had happened. That wouldn’t be surprising at all, since every time Riku blinked, he saw the cracked face, the never wavering eyes, and clean whiteness devoid of blood, and every time his mind was doing its absolute best to make him forget.

 

Riku turned his head to the side. Sora was sleeping on the couch right next to him. Kairi’s couch was probably way more comfortable to sleep than his own. At least it was bigger, so Sora had more room to roll around.

 

Sora had been…quiet for the most part of the evening. Riku didn’t blame him, either. The person who had been looking after him for ten years and who Sora had stubbornly called his friend had turned out to be something entirely different, and had physically attacked him. And for the second time of that day, Riku had failed with words, not knowing how to approach the situation. That was not new, at least.

 

“Riku?”

 

Sora’s whisper was almost silent, but with the only noise in the room being the clock, Riku could hear him clearly.

 

“Yes?” He had honestly thought that Sora had been sleeping, but there was no sign of drowsiness in his voice as he spoke.

 

“Are you awake?” Sora asked. He moved closer to the edge of the couch, peering down at Riku.

“I mean, I didn’t wake you up?”

 

“You didn’t”, Riku assured.

“…can’t sleep?”

 

“Not really”, Sora answered.

“I forgot to say thank you.”

 

“Thank you for what?” Riku turned on his side to face Sora properly.

“For what I remember, I got you in trouble.”

 

He was still feeling guilty of that. He knew, logically, that James had not been on their side to begin with, but they could’ve still avoided him attacking Sora if Riku had only known how to speak to others.

 

“When?” Sora asked. He sounded genuinely surprised, and leaned closer to Riku.

“Because that’s not what I remember at all.”

 

Sora shifted on the couch, so he could lean his upper body down. His eyes were not glowing tonight, but up close Riku could still see the blue vividly. Sora's eyes hadn’t yet stopped to amaze him, and Riku didn’t think they ever would.

 

“What I remember is that you stood up for me”, Sora said.

“And…you know. You said you cared about me.”

 

“Of course I care about you. I thought that…”

 

He had thought that it was already obvious, but come to think of it, Riku wasn’t sure if he had said that exact word to Sora before. He had said a lot of other things, but maybe that had been the one Sora actually needed to hear.

Riku remembered the face Sora had made when Kairi had said that you worry about people you care about, and honestly, that should’ve been his cue already.

 

“So”, Sora leaned even more down from the couch, resting his elbows now on the futon.

“Thank you.”

 

“You’re welcome”, Riku said. Sora laughed softly, and then he fell silent for a moment, just looking at Riku.

 

Then he sighed, more solemn this time. Riku raised his eyebrows.

 

“What is it?” he asked.

 

“It’s just”, Sora sighed again.

“I care about you, too. And I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”

 

“You won’t get me hurt”, Riku said immediately.

 

“Today was a pretty close call”, Sora pointed out.

“If you hadn’t called James out, I would’ve just kept babbling and we would’ve been caught. And we don’t know what they’re up to or what they would do, you know that.”

 

“I would still say that you are in more danger than I am”, Riku said.

“You are the one with the key, so you’re the one they are really after.”

 

“But I’m just me”, Sora said.

“You have a family that will be sad if something happens to you, unli- “

 

“Stop right there”, Riku just barely restrained from hissing.

“You have a family too, you know that. And you have us. You just said last night that we’re going to figure this out together, and you are not going to take that back now. It’s not just you anymore. You have _me_.”

 

He lifted his body up while talking, and suddenly Riku realised just how close Sora’s face was. Riku could see the dark lining of his lashes and the curve of his upper lip, but more than anything he could feel it. He could feel the look Sora was giving him, and he could faintly feel Sora’s breath brushing his skin, and he could feel the way the futon dipped as Sora was leaning even closer.

 

“Are you even real?” Sora asked, his breathing now grazing Riku’s lips as he spoke, which had to mean that he was now really, really close. Riku wasn’t sure, his head was shutting down further by every passing second.

 

“I hope so”, he managed to answer. Sora laughed, shortly and breathlessly, which was weird because Riku could really feel his breathing and there was nothing wrong with it-

 

There was a click, and light was turned on in the hallway.

 

“Are you guys awake?” Kairi peeked inside the living room.

“I heard you talking.”

 

Sora got up so fast that he almost hit Riku in the face, and Riku quickly rolled on to the other side of his futon.

 

“Y-yeah, we are”, Sora gulped in a deep breath.

“What’s up?”

 

Kairi raised her eyebrows at them, eyes going between them for couple of seconds, as if she was trying to figure out what was going on. She had her laptop in her hands, Riku noticed, as she finally stepped in.

 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I worked on this”, she said, turning on the floor lamp next to the couch before sitting down on the end of the futon.

“And I think I might’ve found a match.”

 

She turned the laptop towards them, so Riku and Sora could see the screen.

 

“Is that the map I drew?” Sora asked, leaning closer to see better.

“It looks similar.”

 

“It is”, Kairi nodded.

“I used one of the programs we use in school to do maps and city plans and transferred the drawing to it. It was easier to search for the corresponding image like this.”

 

She clicked open another tab, showing them a picture of different coloured lines. There were other symbols and writing on the picture, and Riku squinted his eyes.

 

“That is a metro route map”, he said. It was a bit of a statement and a question at the same time. They didn’t have a metro in the city, so the map was from somewhere else.

 

“Yep”, Kairi said.

“It’s from the city around three hours to the north from here. I copied the layout of the map and pasted it on the program to fit them together, and there was one part that matched exactly.”

 

She zoomed in on one corner of the map, dragging it right next to the map she had made from Sora’s drawing.

 

“It does match”, Riku said.

“But why would the Guardian memorize one part of an underground train map?”

 

“I don’t know about him, but I think there is something”, Kairi said.

“This exact part of the metro system is out of order now. This is an older map, and I checked the newer one’s to make sure, and it was removed from all of them. A little googling told me that the reason this part is not used anymore is because something caved in in the tunnels and flooded them almost entirely. The experts say that it was because of possible older underground cave system they had detected signs of after investigating.”

 

“That does sound convenient”, Sora said.

“A little too convenient for it to be nothing.”

 

Riku had to admit that he was right.

 

A way too loud, standard ringtone broke their conversation, and it took Riku a moment to realise that it was his phone. He had already gotten used to not having one, and he had changed the ringtone as soon as he could with the old one, not bothering to listen to the repetitive jingle.

 

The number was not one he recognised, and Riku hesitated for a bit before answering.

 

“Hello?” he said. He would let the caller identify themselves first before telling them his full name. Just in case.

 

_“Good evening, Sir, this is the police calling.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whispers: not yet, my sweet children. Not yet.
> 
> Also very angrily whispers: I hate those programs, QGis can go and choke on something, why did I ever think being a geographer was a good idea.
> 
> ALSO I had to update the tags just to remind that this is indeed Ocean girl-inspired. Have you watched that show? It got pretty wild, honestly.
> 
> But here we go, chapter ten! I just looked at this for a few minutes like 'what do you mean it's chapter ten. I just wrote the first chapter. what do you mean it was over three months ago wh a t'. I've had such a good time with this and I just want to thank you all from being such a great support! Ilu seriously.
> 
> Again, if you wanna come and say hi, my tumblr is Varpusvaras (just remember that there is this thing going on with tumblr right now that peeps from Europe can't access other's blogs). I do also have a twitter @ viluvimma.


	11. Chapter 11

It took a while for Riku to argue that he should go alone. It was unsafe for Sora to step out of the apartment, and he didn’t want to draw attention to Kairi either.

In the end, Sora had sat on the couch with his arms crossed over his chest and mouth set in a firm pout, while Kairi had insisted on calling Riku a taxi instead of letting him walk. Riku accepted it, because while he didn’t like Kairi spoiling him, he wasn’t stupid. He knew now better than when he had went to the island alone.

 

There was a police car parked right in front of the apartment building as Riku hopped out of the taxi. One officer was waiting at the door, and looked over at Riku when he approached.

 

“Care to show an ID?” the officer asked. Riku handed him his licence, and after glancing at it, the officer gestured him to follow.

 

“Man, this must suck”, the officer said as they climbed up to the third floor.

“Break-ins are always hard, and you’re a student, right?”

 

So you got no money to spare was clearly what the officer was trying to say, but Riku decided not to comment on it.

 

“In university, yes”, he just said instead.

 

“What major?” Riku could appreciate that the officer was trying to be nice, even when it was an ungodly hour and neither of them really wanted to be there.

 

“Marine biology”, Riku answered.

“It was a calling, really.”

 

“Oh, that’s great!” the officer flashed him a quick grin. Tired and apologetic one, though.

“You gotta have dreams. You work anywhere?”

 

“No”, Riku answered.

“During summers only. My dad helps with the rent. He spends most of his year in a boat, so he doesn’t have to worry about his own living expenses.”

 

“Hopefully he can help with this too”, the officer said as they approached Riku’s door.

“Or he has gotten you an insurance.”

 

The possible costs were the least of Riku’s problems at that point, but he stayed silent, and followed the officer inside the apartment.

 

Riku understood very quickly why exactly the officer had tried to be so sympathetic and had asked him about his financial situation. First thing he saw when stepping inside his apartment was his couch upside down right next to the wall. Second thing was the coffee table laying next to it, or more like the both halves of the coffee table. He needed only a small glance to the side to see the TV on the floor as well, screen cracked so badly it now looked mostly white.

The kitchen was not any better. The table was still in one piece, but it was pushed to the side as well, while chairs were scattered all around it. The cabinet doors were mostly intact by some miracle, even though it looked like there had been an attempt to rip them all off. Riku stepped over one as he walked further in to the apartment behind the officer.

 

“Your neighbours heard sounds coming from here”, the officer said.

“We got several reports of sounds of things breaking and being thrown around, and Ms. Berg reported that she had gotten up and knocked on your door, but gotten no response”

 

Katie, then. Riku nodded, looking around the apartment. It was funny how little he was actually worried about the mess and about the fact that he would most likely have to pay for the repairing. He could live without a coffee table or without a TV. He could most likely live without most of his furniture anyway.

Because first and foremost this only meant one thing for Riku that made his blood run cold, and it wasn’t the length of a bill.

 

He might’ve been pulling some kind of face, because the officer stepped closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

“I advise you not to touch anything yet”, he said.

“But you can look around and see if anything’s missing.”

 

Right. Riku urged down the chilling feeling in his veins, and started looking around once more. Was there anything missing? He would have to check his bedroom to be completely sure, but…

 

“My computer”, he said.

“I left it on the counter.”

 

The counters were now empty, with the microwave, radio and coffee maker all swept to the floor, but his laptop was not there with them.

 

“A computer, then”, the officer said, fetching a notebook from his pocket, and then took time to find a pen.

“What kind?”

 

“Lenovo Thinkpad”, Riku answered.

“T430u I think. It’s a little bit older one.”

 

It had been a present from his aunt and her husband for his birthday few years back. It had been a very good computer back then, but despite Riku taking a good care of it, it was now several years old, and not the best valued thing out there anymore. No one would go through the effort of trashing the place just to steal one old laptop.

To Riku, it only confirmed further what this was really about.

 

“Well see if it pops up anywhere”, the officer said.

“Is there anything else that’s valuable in here? Something that could’ve attracted the burglars?”

 

_Sora and that stupid key_ , Riku thought bitterly, but that wasn’t something he could just blurt out.

 

“Not besides the computer and the TV”, Riku answered. The officer took a short look over Riku’s shoulder, most likely glancing at the TV laying broken on the floor, and he wrote something down in the notebook with his brows slightly furrowed.

 

Riku could see from the officer’s face that he knew something wasn’t quite right. Riku’s apartment didn’t stan out from the others, and there would be much easier apartments to break in to than the one on the third floor. And the fact that the burglars had made so much noise that it had alerted the rest of the floor’s residents didn’t make this seem like a normal break-in, either.

 

He was really starting to look like he was a part of something criminal himself, wasn’t he?

 

“Alright”, the officer said slowly.

“You just take a look around the rest of the apartment. Are you staying where?”

 

“With my friend”, Riku answered.

“I was there when you called.”

 

“Is the other resident of this apartment there too?”

 

Riku's body went rigid for a couple of seconds.

 

“Excuse me?” he asked, trying to sound normal.

 

“Miss Berg said that your boyfriend lives here too”, the officer said, corners of his mouth coming up a little bit.

“Is he staying with your friend too? Since you arrived alone.”

 

Of course. Riku felt his body relax instantly. Of the officer would know that Sora lived here too, Katie knew him and so did Mrs. Papadopoulos. And probably the rest of the floor did as well, since Sora hadn’t been exactly sneaking around.

 

_Stop being paranoid for a moment_ , he told himself, before nodding.

 

“We decided that it would be better if he stayed there”, Riku told the officer a quick lie.

“So we wouldn’t accidentally mess up anything.”

 

Only then did his brain catch up on what the officer had actually said, and in a blink of an eye, Riku’s face heated up to an almost burning temperature.

 

“I-I mean, he’s n- “Riku rushed to explain, to take back whatever implication there had been. The officer gave him a confused look with both of his eyebrows raised, and Riku was sure that his pale skin was not pale anymore, but screaming red.

 

That made his face heat up even more.

 

“Sorry, nothing”, he managed to say, just to get away from the situation before he would explode from the embarrassment.

“It’s a bit late for this.”

 

The officer laughed, short and awkward, but at least in sounded like he was trying to conceal it. Badly, but Riku appreciated the effort.

 

“That is very true”, he said.

“I don’t want to be discouraging at this time at night, but I have to give you a fair warning that you might have to get yourself a new laptop.”

 

Riku had been kind of ready to hear something like that. The officer had clearly noticed that something was off, and the thing was, Riku already knew who were behind this.

Riku doubted that the police would ever catch them. It was more than unlikely that there would be anything left behind that would give them clue, as Riku had learned during the past days, there was a lot of that the police or any other normal human couldn’t be prepared to face.

 

Riku hated to admit, but in the end, they were only three barely legal-aged university students (Sora wasn’t even that) against a group of people with clearly more recourses than they could ever have. The police were little help, Riku himself had made the point of how no one would believe them if they told the truth. They had no allies from the merpeople, either. Riku wasn’t going to go and take a risk if Sora remembered the names of others as well.

If he could even call them merpeople in the first place.

 

They truly were alone, weren’t they?

 

Riku swallowed back a resigned sigh.

 

“I understand”, he said solemnly, which the officer clearly understood to be about the break-in.

 

“We’ll do our best, of course”, the officer hurried to say, patting Riku on the shoulder a little bit too hard.

“I bet it would be nice to get all of your unfinished schoolwork back, right?”

 

What would be really nice would be not having to be worried about someone breaking in your apartment in the first place, Riku thought.

 

“Sure”, he said.

“Are you going to need me stay out, or…?”

 

“Just for tonight, then you can get to the cleaning”, the officer promised.

“Do you still want to take a look around?”

 

It didn’t really matter if something else was missing, since it would be pretty much gone for good anyway. Riku just wanted to get out, and he could tell that the officer wasn’t that thrilled to be there either. So he decided to make it easier for both of them.

Riku shook his head.

 

“I don’t think I would notice anything else”, he said. The officer nodded, his eyes looking relieved.

 

“So, where does this friend of yours live?” the officer asked.

“I can give you a lift, if you want one. It’s the end of my shift anyway.”

 

“It would be great”, Riku said, trying to smile a bit. Kairi had told him to call a taxi for the way back as well anyway, and this would spare her money.

“Thank you. Do you mind if I…make one call quickly?”

 

“Not at all, take your time”, the officer grinned at him.

“I’ll go have a smoke while waiting, then.”

 

He left Riku in his apartment, clearly pleased with getting home this fast and not even bothering to look like he was being sympathetic with Riku anymore. It was alright, Riku didn’t really even expect it.

 

Riku was starting to get pretty used in the feeling of surrealism that took a hold of him a lot these days. It made it easier for him not to pay attention to the mess around him as he took his phone out of his pocket and dialled his dad’s number.

 

Riku should’ve called him way earlier. He would believe him, and Riku wanted him to know. In case of something happened, his dad would know what was going on.

 

And…if he was being completely honest, Riku was starting to be really worried.

No, that wasn’t right, Riku was always worried. What he was becoming was scared.

 

He missed his dad. Even if he had gotten used to not seeing him very often during his teenage years, he had never stopped missing him. Dad had been his whole family before moving away from the islands, and while he and Riku were not the same, he still had always had better understanding of his son than other people had. And Riku knew his dad loved him.

Riku did not want to disappear and leave his dad not knowing what had happened to him. He listened at the low beeping as he waited for his dad to pick up.

 

He tried not to be so disappointed when he heard the automatic voice telling him to leave a message. Of course. His dad wouldn’t be back from work until next month. Riku had known that, but it had completely slipped his mind.

 

There was a high note indicating the beginning of the message. Riku breathed hard.

 

“Hi dad”, he said.

“I just…” how was he going to say this? “…wanted to call you. There has been some stuff going on. My apartment was broken into. I might actually be in trouble. Don’t…get nervous, okay? But me and my friend are kinda in the middle of something, and I just wanted to let you know in case of something happens.”

 

His dad was going to get nervous. While his dad had much stronger nerves than Riku did, Riku knew he was adamant about Riku’s safety. He had never forgotten how his dad had sounded on the day sixteen years ago, when he had almost drowned, and Riku was not happy about making him worried like that again.

But he had to. Kairi had said it, Riku himself had said it. You worried if you cared, and his dad was going to worry anyway. It was more fair to let him know than not saying anything.

 

“I wanted to tell you because I know you believe me”, Riku said to the phone.

“It is about mom’s people.”

 

It was vague enough, in case of someone else got to listen to the message, but his dad would understand what Riku had meant by it.

 

“I hope nothing happens”, Riku muttered.

“But in case if…well, you know now. Call me when you can, please?”

 

He would have to end the message soon. Riku hesitated for a second.

 

“I love you dad”, he added then, hastily.

“See you when you get back.”

 

Not even a second later there was another high note, and his message was sent before the call ended. Riku stuffed the phone back to his pocket, and then rubbed his face.

 

He should probably head back down, while he still had the drive back to Kairi’s in order. Riku didn’t want to risk it in case the officer wanted to get home a little bit faster. And to be fair, Riku wanted to get back as soon as possible himself, before Sora and Kairi would start to get too nervous of him being out without them.

Riku bit the inside of his cheek, as his mind drifted to the moment before the call from the police. Before Kairi had came to the living room with the map. His face was starting to feel hot again, and Riku tapped his cheeks lightly to get himself back together.

 

What had he been thinking? Riku liked to think that he wasn’t dense, but now the uncertainty and denial were far stronger than any other feeling in his head.

They had just been talking. In the middle of the night, while they were both on the edge. That had most likely clouded Riku’s rational thinking, leading him to reading the situation wrong. Maybe. Riku had not really thought of anything at that moment, other than wondering about how Sora’s face looked up close in the almost non-existent lighting of the living room.

 

He hadn’t really…read anything of it, not until now. Until the officer referred to Sora as his _boyfriend._

 

Oh, god, this was awkward. Riku pinched the bridge of his nose before hurrying downstairs. He would have to get a grip of himself, before he would actually start to read situations wrong while they were happening.

 

The officer was still there when Riku stepped back outside, just finishing up a cigarette. He nodded to Riku as a greeting while taking in the last smokes, blowing them out slowly.

 

“Did they answer?” the officer asked, dropping the cigarette to the ground and suffocating it with his foot. Riku shook his head.

“Oh, shame. Hope they call back soon”, the officer flashed a quick grin at him, gesturing Riku to follow him to the car.

 

“I’ll probably have to wait for it”, Riku hummed, circling to the passenger side of the patrol car as the officer unlocked the doors.

“Thank you for the ride, really.”

 

“It’s fine, it’s a slow night anyway. Apart from this, of course”, the officer nodded his head back towards the apartment.

“And I feel a little bit bad for you for having to get up at this hour.”

 

“Not the first time for me”, Riku said. The officer laughed shortly, but didn’t ask him any elaborating questions.

 

“So, where to?” Riku leaned back on the seat as the officer started to put Kairi’s address in the navigator. He peered at the street, relieved when he didn’t see any other cars. Great. He really didn’t want anyone to follow them. Riku didn’t know if the men even bothered to stick around in case he would appear. It was a possibility, but right now, the yard and the street were both completely empty.

 

They pulled up to the street, and suddenly there was something in the corner of Riku’s eye.

 

Riku almost didn’t see it. It was standing just barely outside the streetlight’s reach, dark form faintly standing out from the shadow. It was shaped like a human, but Riku could barely see the shape of it, until it moved, and Riku was sure he felt a stare right through the car window.

 

Riku’s skin went completely cold.

 

Then they drove past the next set of lights, and when Riku turned his head to keep his eyes on the dark form, the shadows were empty.

 

Riku swallowed tightly, his heart pounding, and rubbed his arms, trying to get some warmness back to them.

 

Had he…really just seen that?

 

“Yeah, the nights have been pretty chilly for the past couple of days”, the officer said suddenly, and Riku only then noticed that he was still rubbing his arms.

“Do you want me to turn the heating up?”

 

“No, no, it’s okay”, Riku said hurriedly.

“I just have a poor circulation sometimes.”

 

They turned from another corner, and Riku kept looking behind them through the mirror. The street remained empty, and Riku reluctantly leaned back against the seat.

 

There was a weird taste in his mouth suddenly, foul and rotten, and Riku swallowed forcefully to wash it away. It kept coming back, like there was something stuck between his teeth he couldn’t get rid of, and Riku gave up before he would start making faces.

He did recognise the taste, but it had never lingered this long. It had only merely visited before, like an aftertaste of something that was already gone. Riku didn’t like the change. Especially not right after what he had seen.

 

If he had seen that. Riku hoped not. Hoped that maybe his eyes had just made a trick on his nervous and tired mind.

Not that he could remember last time his hopes had been answered.

 

                                                                                                                          ⋆

 

 

Kairi had given him her key, so Riku wouldn’t have to wait outside for her to open the door. Riku had already texted her on his way back, so he was not surprised to see her waiting for him there when he stepped back inside her apartment.

 

“How was it?” Kairi asked quietly. Her eyebrows were drawn together, and her eyes were wide, forming a mix of frightened and worried expression on her face. She had had the same exact expression since Riku had received the call about the break-in and his apartment being screwed up, and Riku knew that she was thinking about what could’ve happened if she hadn’t made them stay with her.

 

Riku was making his best effort to not think about what could have happened. It was already bad enough as it was, and he wanted to find some solace from the fact that they were safe for now.

 

“Not as bad as it could’ve been”, Riku answered truthfully.

“Nothing seemed to be completely beyond repair, though I didn’t check the bedroom or the bathroom.”

 

He had already lived a couple of days without a bathroom once, and Sora didn’t even need the bathtub anymore either. They could manage if it was out of order.

 

The state of the apartment really, really wasn’t on the first place of his list of worries.

 

“Oh, good”, Kairi sighed.

“Or not good, but at least it can still be fixed, right?”

 

“Right”, Riku nodded.

“I’m more uncomfortable with what this means. They know who I am, since they found out where I live.”

 

That was what really worried him the most. If they knew his name and had managed to find out his address, what else did they know?

 

“You think it was them?” Kairi asked, her eyes widening just a bit more and her eyebrows knitting together just a little tighter.

 

“I can’t think of anyone else”, Riku sighed.

“It happened right after they almost caught us, and you know that I don’t exactly swim in money, so I don’t think anyone would bother to actually rob me. And…”

 

“Riku?”

 

Riku turned towards to voice coming from the hallway. Sora was standing there and rubbing his eyes furiously on the back of his hands, yawning loudly.

 

Kairi nudged his arm a bit.

 

“He fell asleep while waiting for you to get back”, she whispered.

“I was going to wake him up once you’d arrive.”

 

At least seeing Sora, hair messed up and blinking his blue eyes to make them focus, brought back some warmth to Riku’s limbs. He couldn’t help but to chuckle slightly at the scene and at the feeling.

 

“I have a feeling he would’ve gotten upset if we didn’t wake him up”, he said.

 

“You’re right”, Sora said, as he had clearly heard what Riku had said. He walked closer, giving his eyes one rub more.

“You just got back, right? Was everything okay? You called a taxi like Kairi told you?”

 

“I didn’t have to, the officer who showed me around took me here”, Riku answered.

“The place was messed up, but we’ll manage with it.”

 

“Good”, Sora nodded, then tilted his head a bit to the side.

“So they just…messed up the apartment and then left?”

 

“…looks like it”, Riku answered a bit hesitantly.

“The only thing actually missing was my laptop.”

 

Riku wasn’t really surprised about the computer. The computer was usually the thing where you stored your stuff, and Sora had told James about the other memories and about the map he had drawn. Checking the computer was a logical approach to try to obtain them.

Well, they wouldn’t find anything else than essays from Riku’s files. Most of them had received good grades, but Riku doubted that they would interest the men very much.

 

“We’ll figure out something, so you can get your schoolwork done”, Kairi said.

“I suppose you’re not letting me buy you a new laptop?”

 

“You’re right, I’m not”, Riku said.

“I’ll manage, I just have to talk to the teachers about it.”

 

He wasn’t really concerned about university. It would solve itself out in the end, if he only managed to keep himself in one piece.

 

Sora yawned again, and stretched his arms.

 

“So what are we going to do?” he asked, as they walked back to the living room.

“We still have the map, they don’t. And since it’s from my memories, I don’t think they have any other sources for it.”

 

He flopped on the couch, and gave Riku and Kairi an expecting look. Riku saw from askance how Kairi bit her bottom lip, hesitant to speak, and she returned the look to Riku. She was asking him.

The thing was, Riku didn’t have any answers.

 

“I don’t know”, Riku groaned.

“Every time we do something, it gets worse than it was before.”

 

Riku had tried his best to keep the worst case-scenarios away from his mind, but his tired brain couldn’t keep them at bay anymore. They were safe now in Kairi’s home, but for how long? If the men knew who Riku was, it wouldn’t probably take them much effort to dig up who he hanged out with. The two of the men had already seen Kairi with them by the cliff, and Riku doubted that the men would not leave her out of this if it would suit them.

 

Ice cold dread made itself home in Riku’s stomach. Kairi had the least of to do with anything of this. She was only Riku’s friend, who had been way too friendly and had let Riku drag her into all of this.

 

Riku felt like he had miserably failed in absolutely everything.

 

“Then we have to keep low profile”, Sora said like it was a no-brainer.

“They don’t know where the map leads, so we just have to sneak around a bit to get past them.”

 

God, Sora’s optimism was same time amazing and very deeply frustrating.

 

“It would be fantastic if it was that simple”, Riku huffed.

“The reality is that every single person who is out there could potentially be with our enemy, so we really need to think about every move we’re going to make.”

 

“There can’t be that many of them”, Sora argued.

“Or otherwise they would’ve caught us already. They can’t possibly have eyes everywhere.”

 

Technically, Sora was right. But the thought of something happening to Sora or Kairi was not making Riku scared, it was making him outright horrified, and his head was not capable of comprehending anything else.

 

“There are enough of them”, Riku growled, frustration and panic taking over him.

“They know what we look like, they know personal information of me, so it’s only the matter of time that they know who Kairi is, and then we are all _fucked._ ”

 

That got Sora tensing up. His eyes went to look at Kairi, big and intense, like it only now dawned on him that she would be in danger too.

 

“Hey, hey, know”, Kairi rushed to calm them down.

“I’m not that easily harmed, you know? And you are both right in your own way, but maybe it would be for the best if we think about this a little before we do anything?”

 

Riku felt bad for that Kairi had to always be the one mediating, but he couldn’t say that he wasn’t relieved when she did so.

 

He breathed deeply for couple of times.

 

“Sure”, he said. Because Sora was right in that they had one advantage for knowing where to go next.

 

Sora looked at them silently, before Riku heard him exhaling.

 

“Okay”, he said, turning to look down at his side.

“No rushing.”

 

“That’s it”, Kairi smiled gently.

“I think we should all try to sleep again, even for couple of hours. Riku has to go and talk with the teachers tomorrow, so he has to get up with me.”

 

“Alright”, Riku nodded. Sora nodded too, gathering up his blanket and rolling himself inside of it.

 

Kairi shut the lights and disappeared in to her bedroom, and then it was back to what it had been, to dim living room, Riku laying on the futon while staring at the ceiling, listening to the clock softly ticking away.

 

There was ruffling, and when Riku turned his head, he saw Sora looking at him, his hand stretched out towards Riku.

 

“What?” Riku asked. Sora stretched out his hand further, grabbing Riku’s hand and squeezing it slightly.

 

Oh.

 

“We’re going to be okay”, Sora whispered.

 

Riku wanted to believe him so, so badly.

 

“We’re going to be okay”, he repeated, squeezing Sora’s hand back.

 

                                                                                                                         ⋆

 

 

Riku got more time to every single one of his essays.

 

“You can borrow my computer when you need it”, Kairi promised.

“If you don’t want to go to the library.”

 

“You need to do your own work, too”, Riku pointed out.

 

It was weird to be back at school, even though he had been there only few days ago before. The weekend that was supposed to be relaxing had turned out to be the exact opposite of that, and Riku was honestly even more exhausted than before.

 

Well, Saturday had still been the best Saturday ever, so it was something.

 

“I’ll be fine”, Kairi assured.

“I’m mostly done with everything, anyway. Has the police found out anything?”

 

Riku shook his head.

 

“I didn’t really even expect them to”, he said. He looked down at his phone, finger hovering over the screen.

 

Kairi noticed it, because of course she did.

 

“Sora is fine”, she said.

“You just texted him few minutes ago and he answered instantly.”

 

They had agreed that it would be for the best if Sora stayed in Kairi’s apartment. It would keep the attention away from his, compared to him coming with them to the university. And Kairi’s apartment was harder to break in to, since it was in upper floors in more populated area, and it would take a little bit more than one flip of a tail or climbing through a window to get in.

 

That still didn’t mean Riku liked Sora being alone.

 

“I know”, Riku said, unlocking the screen anyway.

“I just feel better while talking with him.”

 

Kairi smiled sympathetically.

 

“I understand”, she said, and then leaned slightly over the table.

“So, when are you going to tell him?”

 

Riku raised his eyebrows.

 

“Tell him what?” he asked.

 

“That you like him, duh”, Kairi said, rolling her eyes like she was talking to an idiot.

 

Riku’s cheeks flared up instantly.

 

“Now is not a very good time”, he muttered, averting Kairi’s eyes.

 

“Oh”, Kairi sounded surprised.

“I was kinda waiting for you to say that you don’t like him like that or something equally stupid.”

 

“Of course I like him”, Riku said.

“We have talked about this before, it’s literally impossible not to like him.”

 

“True, true”, Kairi grinned.

“But I think you should just go for it.”

 

“Kairi, no”, Riku sighed.

 

“Why not?”

 

“I just said, now is not a very good time”, Riku said.

“We have a group of shady people after us and we are busy trying to keep our heads, so now is not exactly the time to make this awkward as hell.”

 

Kairi tilted her head.

 

“Why would it make this awkward?” she asked, clearly confused.

 

“We have not actually known each other for that long”, Riku said.

“And I really don’t want to jump on him in the middle of this.”

 

Riku could take the rejection. Sora was a great person anyway, and Riku would be happy to have him as a friend, but there was no telling how Sora would react.

 

“You sound like he’s going to say no”, Kairi said.

 

“It’s a possibility”, Riku murmured.

 

“Not really”, Kairi said.

“He pretty much thinks you are the coolest and greatest person alive.”

 

That shouldn’t have made Riku to blush even harder. He knew that, basically. Sora had clearly spelled out how Riku was the nicest person he knew, and that should’ve been telling.

 

But it was too good. Just like last night.

 

“Sora doesn’t really have a baseline for comparison”, Riku pointed out.

“Of course he thinks I’m the nicest or coolest person he knows, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

 

“Oh my god”, Kairi groaned, resting her face on her hand.

“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t think Sora actually likes you, just because he doesn’t know better?”

 

“Yes?” Riku said.

“I mean, kind of?” It would be just logical that Sora would become attached to the first person that was nice to him, after being emotionally neglected for ten years.

 

The look Kairi gave him told Riku that his answer had been the wrong one.

 

“Riku, I swear to god, I’m going to actually punch you”, she said.

“What have I told you about appreciating yourself? You talk like you didn’t act like fucking knight in a shining armour looking beautiful in a pale moonlight as you rescued him and then carried him to your own home and proceeded to take care of him?”

 

“I was just being decent”, Riku argued.

“And Sora was the one of us being beautiful in the pale moonlight.”

 

“Nope, nope, you don’t get to say that after I had to listen to Sora ramble about your gorgeous eyes and your most beautiful hair shining and how big and buff you are”, Kairi hissed.

“He literally said that you are so tall and strong and your chest is thick like a log and really Riku, I love you and think you are great person too but I would never say that to your other friends while smiling like a goddamn doofus.”

 

“Christ, Kairi, please”, Riku ducked his head, trying to hide his face from other students.

 

“What, those are his words, not mine”, Kairi crossed her arms.

“I understand if you are not ready yet, but really, Riku. Sora likes you, and he likes you because you are nice, and that’s all what you need.”

 

“It feels like I am forcing him to like me, just because I helped him”, Riku said quietly.

“And this is more pressing. Let me just…wait.”

 

He didn’t want to argue with Kairi about this, not now.

 

It didn’t take long for Kairi to soften up again. It never did.

 

“You are not forcing him to do anything”, she said.

“If Sora likes you, then he likes you because he wants to. He can make his own decisions about that.”

 

Riku knew she was right. His head was making things more complicated than they really were, and it frustrated him to no end.

It was probably because he had not slept well during the past couple of nights. It always made it worse.

 

Kairi took his hand gently to her own.

 

“I know you are nervous”, she said.

“But we don’t have many lessons left anymore. Then we can go back home and figure this out, so you can start worrying only about your love life like you should.”

 

“Yeah”, Riku nodded slowly.

“That sounds nice.”

 

“And then you see that I was right and that you worried for nothing”, Kairi smirked. Riku sighed, and rolled his eyes.

 

“When are you not right about everything?” he asked, opening his messages.

“You better not tease me about messaging him for the rest of the day.”

 

“I won’t, I won’t”, Kairi promised. Riku smiled quickly at her, and went back to texting.

 

 

                                                                                                                     ⋆

 

 

 

Sora looked at his reflection from the dirty window. There were couple of wild streaks of hair pushing free from under the hat, and he tried his best to tuck them back in without letting more loose.

 

It had taken some time to find a hat that would fit his head and cover his hair (mostly, at least), since Kairi had a smaller head than him, and the couple winter hats he had found from the basket had been way too warm to wear.

He had finally picked up the red university cap she had had. It held down his hair pretty well, apart from his bangs. He should really cut them soon. The longer his hair got, the harder it was to keep maintained. Sora had long ago given up from even trying to make it look like he hadn’t just gotten out of bed.

 

The bus got on to the road again, after a couple of new passengers had climbed in and taken their seats. Sora slid down on his own seat, so he was covered by the backrest in front of him, just in case.

His new phone beeped as the sign for new message. It was Riku, again. He had texted him not even an hour later after he and Kairi had left for school. Probably he wanted to know that Sora was alright.

 

It was cute.

 

Sora did feel a little bit bad as he texted Riku back. Well, he wasn’t exactly lying about anything, since Riku had not asked where he was, and Sora had not indicated that he was still in the apartment. But still. Riku surely assumed that he was in there, since Sora had not told him anything about leaving.

 

But he had to do this. Riku and Kairi had nothing to do with any of this, and Sora felt more than bad for dragging them in to this whole mess. But Sora could not just sit and wait, and then drag them with him again.

If it was just Sora, then Riku and Kairi would be safe. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t going to come back. He was just going to check it out, whatever it was that the map had been pointing towards, and then get back. It would probably take the whole day, and his disappearance would be discovered before he got back, but he would just have to deal with it then.

 

Sora send the text, and then turned to at the coastline glistening in the sun outside the window.

Maybe after this, they could go out again, and not worry about anything. They would take Kairi with them, too, and on the other times, Sora would take Riku to swim with him and shove him more things, when Riku would be better with his underwater vision.

 

The mere thought of it made Sora smile. They could visit a lot of different places without having to be on their toes. Maybe even go see other beaches, or maybe, someday, if Sora would ask nicely enough, they could go back to the islands Riku had talked about. Sora could only imagine it, soft sand and water all around him, no one and nothing to chaining him to one place. And Riku would be happy too, to return there, and that was what Sora wanted to see more than anything.

 

He couldn’t wait.

 

But first, they would have to get rid of the men following them. And Sora knew only one way to do it.

 

He would have to beat them at this first.

 

Sora checked the time. He got only a little over an hour left of the ride. It was enough time to take a nap, as his eyes were still a little heavy after the sleepless night.

 

He rested his head against the window and closed his eyes. Hopefully Riku wouldn’t be too mad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Sora.
> 
> I also just made my timetable for the first period that starts in less than two weeks, and what can I say except yikes. It's going to be a long fall.
> 
> I'm still trying to keep the updates as regular as possible. Big thanks to everyone who has had patience with him and followed the story to his point, you make my day.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my grandfather.
> 
> Thank you for all the adventures I got to share with you. 
> 
> I love you.

Riku looked at every direction before opening the door. He quickly stepped in and pushed the door close, making sure no one would follow him in. He felt his muscles relax marginally as the front yard remained empty, apart from one family leaving the building next door and an older man walking slowly around with his cat on the grass.

Not a sign of any menacing or suspicious looking men or dark figures lurking in the shadows.

 

Like it had been for the entire day.

 

Riku knew he should’ve been happy about it. Not once had he caught anyone staring at him. Not once had he felt eyes on his skin, watching. There had been absolutely nothing to set him on the edge, when he had been surrounded by people he knew for the whole day, so that no one could do any harm to him or Kairi, and when Sora had been on the reach of the phone whenever he felt like it. Kairi’s apartment was like a vault compared to Riku’s, so he had been safe all the time as well.

 

But despite all of this, the unpleasant churning inside his guts never left him alone. It made him tense up all of his muscles to the point he was actually starting to feel them ache. Riku stared at himself through the mirror in the elevator, and he rubbed his jaw, trying to ignore the slight darker colour under his eyes. There was a dull throbbing around his head, and Riku wasn’t sure if it was because of lack of sleep, from clenching his jaw or from stress. Or which one of those caused which.

 

He was so going to need a vacation after this. Or a massage. Or both. He didn’t want to become a shaking ball of nerves who snapped at others. He had already snapped at Sora in the night.

 

And just after Sora had apologised for giving him trouble. Riku grimaced. He had acted like Sora didn’t consider them at all, when in reality, Riku could bet everything he had in that Sora just wanted this all to be over as soon as possible as well.

Even if James had not been a real person all along, he had still been one of them who Sora had thought of being a friend. Someone who cared about him, at least at some degree. And James had spat out how all of this was Sora’s fault.

 

What Sora needed was to Riku to stay as the nicest person he had ever met, not as someone who snapped at him when all Sora wanted was to help.

 

Riku pinched the bridge of his nose, and glanced down at his phone. No new messages. Neither from Sora or Kairi.

 

Kairi he knew why. Since they had different majors, they didn’t share all of the classes, and while Riku was free to go, Kairi still had had couple of classes she really couldn’t skip, and one of them was an exam. One of her professors liked to give her students smaller exams almost every second week, telling them that the score would affect their final grade. Kairi had complained about that enough for Riku to remember all of the previous questions, and especially their ridiculous length. She was most likely writing an four-page essay on something along the lines of “is it right to use introduced species’ in order to prevent erosion, drought or other similar factors which heavily impact the environment harmfully and/or cause suffering to the local vegetation, fauna and settlements in a situation where the indigenous factors are not effective enough to prevent those, even if the introduces species’ would end up taking up the indigenous econiches? Discuss” in the time limit of forty-five minutes.

 

Kairi had sent him home in the taxi again, telling him that she would grab one as well once she was done with her classes. So he could stop fidgeting about Sora not answering him.

 

He was probably sleeping. While Riku could go on a few days with little sleep and become a human equivalent of cactus, Sora was constantly napping even after a decent night of sleep. So a couple of sleepless nights would most likely knock him out pretty efficiently. He had already sent Riku one text earlier, saying that he was going to take a quick nap, and Riku wouldn’t be too surprised if he had just fallen asleep again.

 

Riku could already see it. He would step inside to Kairi’s living room, and Sora would be there, passed out on the couch, with his new phone next to him, completely unaware of multiple unanswered messages that were waiting for him.

 

Oh, great. He would have to apologise for being so overbearing again. Hopefully Sora understood and wouldn’t be annoyed at him again, as this was now a completely different situation than jumping down on some rocks. Riku pinched the bridge of his nose harder. Still. Sora was fine. Completely fine.

 

Then why did it feel like there was an ice-cold snake slithering inside of him?

 

They were both going to need a vacation. Kairi too. Riku from constantly making himself stressed, Sora from having to keep hiding from people who wanted to do him harm, and Kairi from having to put up with them and everything else. Saturday had been great, but just not nearly enough.

And Sora deserved better than just a one small beach nearby the city. He deserved to swim in clear waters under the warm morning sun whenever he wanted, not worrying about masses of people suddenly surrounding him.

 

Maybe…Riku was a little hesitant to voice his thoughts, even inside his own head. Maybe he would take Sora to the islands one day. Not that many people lived there, so they could have their own peace. Riku knew that if they would use the Eastern side of their house, there wouldn’t be any immediate neighbours. Though Riku doubted that no one would notice, anyway.

 

Not that he even knew what condition their old house was in right now. They hadn’t exactly sold it to anyone, is it wasn’t really necessary and there had not even been any buyers, but Riku had seen the people on the island take care of the empty houses still, to at some degree. So perhaps it would not be rotten to the core. If it had survived all of the yearly storms, that was.

He could ask his dad. He knew people on the islands, and he would ask them if the house was even remotely liveable. Then he could ask Sora, if he wanted to come with him.

 

The elevator stopped, and Riku shook the thoughts away. He shouldn’t get ahead of the situation. First, they had to solve this. Or at least get the men off of their tail.

 

Still…it wouldn’t hurt to ask. Right?

 

Riku opened the door to Kairi’s apartment.

 

“Sora?” he called as he closed the door.

 

No answer. Riku tried to stay rational at the looming silence. Sora is just taking a nap. Riku knew that not even an earthquake would wake him up.

 

He walked further to the apartment. The couch was empty.

 

The silence was wrapping itself around Riku’s neck now, ready to tighten up at any given moment.

 

“Sora?” Riku called again, starting to walk around the apartment, his steps becoming faster by every silent second that passed. The kitchen was empty, the bathroom was empty, Kairi’s room was empty.

 

Riku’s throat was tight, preventing from the air going in properly, making him light-headed and his thoughts become jumpy.

 

No. No no no no _no._

 

He left Sora alone for few hours. He should’ve known better. Why did he ever think that leaving Sora alone anywhere was a good idea? Why had he listened to Sora and Kairi about how he would be okay in the apartment? He should’ve known better, he should-

His head started spinning, and Riku had to lean against the kitchen table to keep himself standing. Breathe, he commanded himself. Breathe and calm down, so you can think to what to do next.

 

Riku managed to suck in a big gulp of air to make his vision normal again, and he lifted his head from between his arms. That was when he noticed the big paper on the table. Which had writing on it in big, bright yellow high-light marker letters.

 

Riku grabbed the paper, and with trembling papers dragged it closer to him.

 

_Hey!_

_I went to check out the thing. Don’t worry, I’ll be back! :D_

_Sora <3_

Riku just stared at the paper. He read the words once, then twice again, before they truly sank in.

 

His hands were now shaking so badly that he accidentally gripped the paper too hard, crumpling it in his fists, before he just let it drop on to the floor as he rushed to pull his phone out of his pocket again.

 

Sora’s number was on top of the last used one’s, and Riku’s quivering finger somehow managed to press it without fumbling. Riku had never been the one to bite his fingernails or grind his teeth too much, but now he was gnawing his whole fingertips as he pressed the phone to his ear, just to concentrate all of his excess nervous energy into _something._

 

_“The number you have called cannot be reached, please try again l-“_

 

It was so, so close that Riku didn’t break this phone too, this time by throwing it straight to the nearest wall. He somehow managed to stuff the phone safely back to his pocket, and then he was running out of the apartment and without even fully realising it, outside of the whole building.

 

“Fucking hell”, Riku cursed between his gritted teeth as he ran towards the station.

 

He could only hope that Sora had not gotten himself in trouble. And if he hadn’t, _Riku_ would get him into one.

 

Because no matter how much Sora wanted to help and for this to be over, he was going to hear a few very, _very_ angry words for Riku when he’d reach him.

 

                                                                                                                      ⋆

 

 

What Sora had forgotten about cell phones, was that they could run out of battery and they needed to be recharged when that happened.

 

“Oh, damn”, he muttered, as the phone didn’t turn on anymore.

“This is not good.”

 

The clock on the station wall told him that Riku’s last class had ended over half an hour ago, and that he should be home pretty much by now. Which meant that Riku would notice that Sora wasn’t in the apartment by any given moment.

 

Sora hoped that Riku would notice the note he had left behind. He had tried to make it as big and as bright and colourful as possible and leave it to a place where it would be easy to spot. And he had kinda hoped that Riku would call him.

Because Sora already knew that Riku was going to be mad at him, and he had counted on that if Riku could scream at him over the phone, he could let out some of that steam before they would see each other face to face again.

 

Speaking to Riku over a phone would also probably have prevented him running after Sora once he realised he had left, and that had been the major part of Sora’s plan. To keep Riku out of this.

 

Oh, well. There went that plan.

 

“Stupid phone”, Sora pouted at the black screen.

“Why didn’t you warn me?”

 

To be fair, the phone had warned him, so it wasn’t really the phone’s fault. Didn’t change the fact that it was now dead, making Sora unreachable through it.

 

And for what Sora had learned about Riku during his stay with him, the only way this would go now was that Riku would follow him.

 

“Gotta make this quick, then”, Sora said. It would still take Riku another three hours or so to get here, since the only way to travel between the two cities was a bus. Sora had checked before leaving, because he needed to know where to go and how much money he should have for a ticket.

 

Hopefully Kairi wouldn’t mind him taking the few dollars from the jar on top of the kitchen cabinet. Sora had felt bad when taking them, but he had promised in his mind that he would repay her. Somehow. He’d figure out something.

 

But now, there was a lot more pressing issue. Sora put the phone away, checked that the cap was still holding his hair down, and he made his way out of the station.

 

This city was clearly more busier than the one where Riku lived. Sora was greeted with a rush of hot air and a horde of people hurrying to every direction, forming an dense mass of bodies and faces Sora couldn’t make out in the hustle.

 

It was only a good thing, though. It would be easier for him to blend in, because if there were more people and everyone was in a hurry, no one would spare him a second glance. So Sora took a quick look around, before diving right in to the crowd.

 

There had maybe been a tiny bit of doubt within him when Kairi had showed them the map. Not because he didn’t think it was the right place or it couldn’t be that easy, but because Sora was not sure if the memory was his or someone else’s.

 

He’d thought he was sure. Sora had not known what the weird, tight ball in his stomach had been back then, and he had only second-questioned himself while stepping out of the bus.

 

If the memories were the guardians, it should’ve meant that Sora himself had never been in the city. Sora couldn’t remember ever being there (frankly, that didn’t tell much, but _still_ ) but in the exact moment his feet touched the ground, there was flooding of noises and images inside of his head that didn’t match at all in what he was seeing in front of him.

Nothing he could really distinct from one another, just the overwhelming feeling of familiarity and the thought of _there should be Christmas lights on top of the building._

It had been so strong that Sora had almost reeled, and he had hurried inside the station building to find someplace to sit down before he would actually stumble to the ground. It had been so strong that Sora could not, no matter how much he wanted, really say that the memories weren’t his.

 

So there he was, in a different city than the two other people he actually knew nowadays, searching for something that could very well just be a flash from Sora’s own past and not anything important.

Yikes. Well, more reasons for why it was good he was alone. It would be bad enough if anything happened to Riku and Kairi if it was something important, and it would be much worse if anything happened to them over nothing.

 

…aaand Sora was once more reminded of the fact that his phone was dead on Riku would now most likely come rushing in at some point.

 

“What a great and thoughtful person you are, Sora”, Sora mumbled to himself.

“Should’ve thought about this a liiiittle bit more.”

 

Too late now, so he’d just have to keep going. He did have three hours before Riku would arrive. That would maybe be enough to check out if there really even was anything, if he’d hurry up.

At least he already knew where to go.

 

Sora jogged over the crosswalk with the crowd, and then headed towards the tall office buildings in the distance. From there it would be easy to get to the right underground line that would take him close to the flooded part of the system.

 

Again, Sora found it rather weird that the Guardian would know how the metro lines worked. Though come to think of it, it was just as weird if Sora knew them. He didn’t remember ever being too interested in metro lines, not at least to the point where he would memorise an exact segment in detail. Especially when they were talking about a one certain segment in a certain city.

 

But then again, the Guardian probably wouldn’t have paid attention to Christmas lights on top of station roof. Sora sighed heavily. There was really no point that would’ve told him which memory was whose.

But if one thing was certain, it was that there where two options: first one was that these were all the Guardians memories (and he, for some reason, had really liked the Christmas lights, but who Sora was to judge), _or_ , these were all Sora’s memories.

Which meant that Sora had been in this city before.

 

Sora tried not to be happy about that possibility, but it was pretty impossible. A smile tugged his lips slightly upwards, but Sora tried his best to quickly turn it down. No, it was not yet time for this. Finding out what was going on and getting rid of whatever this Master Xehanort and the men were planning was the top priority. Being sure Riku and Kairi stayed safe came first.

 

Sora’s memories could wait a little bit more.

 

Sora hopped down the stairs to the underground stop, trying his best not to accidentally shove anyone (or to get shoved himself. Or to get an elbow to his face. He’d already had one grazing his temple). He wasn’t really that surprised about the amount of people coming and going past him in every direction, since it was the time of the day when people usually got out of school or from their regular 9 to 5 jobs. There was a little bit of a line to the ticket automat, but Sora waited patiently (or not so patiently as he kept rocking back and forth on his feet, but he _waited_ ), because he was not going to have an inspector coming at him.

 

Being wary of ticket inspector was just a tiny bit ridiculous when the plan was to investigate a flooded, fallen and definitely closed railway line but hey, only one of them could fine you instantly. So Sora was being only highly logical as he bought his ticket and walked past the gates with it, since he was as officially broke as one could be.

 

It took him a while to find the right rail (seriously, why where there so many stairs?), but finally Sora squeezed his way to the waiting area of the train. The timetable screen told him that the right train would come in few minutes, so he leaned against the wall to wait. He checked the clock on the wall.

 

If Riku was coming, he would most likely be on his way by now. That meant that in between of his quest, Sora would have to come up with a good explanation and quick.

He did feel bad about running away without notice. He really did, especially after Riku had given him the talk last night. Sora’s face bloomed into a smile once again. Kairi had told him that Riku appeared to many as cool and mysterious, but that he was just really soft and caring under all of his insecurities. And Sora could see it. He could see it very clearly.

 

There was a thing with his memory, that he had already told Riku, just after they’d met. He couldn’t remember any names, faces or clear events, but he could remember how they had felt. He couldn’t remember ever breaking a bone, but he remembered the pain in his wrist. He couldn’t remember going to school, but he could remember how the textbooks and pencils and cold classrooms had felt in his skin. He couldn’t remember his parents, his friends, not how they looked like or sounded like, but he did remember the warmth, cozy and comfortable and soft. Sora didn’t think he could ever forget the feeling, no matter what happened.

 

And Riku. Riku was everything he remembered about the warmth. Sora hadn’t realised how much he had missed actually feeling it, not before it had started to spark again and slowly but surely strengthen it’s hold of Sora’s chest, and then it had already spread all over him like a wildfire, and Sora couldn’t stop it anymore. Not that he even wanted to.  The warmth felt so good that Sora just couldn’t find it in him to step away from it. if anything, if Sora had the choice, he would’ve just kept pressing closer and closer.

(Like he had last night. Sora hurried to press the cap further down on his head, despite knowing that it would not cover his burning cheeks)

 

But that wouldn’t be fair to Riku. Riku, who had given his time and caring to Sora like it was his second nature.  Sora had to give back to him. He would have to take care of Riku as well.

 

_It’s not just you anymore. You have me._

“Yes I do”, Sora said.

“And you have _me_.”

 

He wasn’t just going to sit around when his friends were in danger. He wasn’t alone.

He could do this for them.

 

The train came in to a stop in front of him, and Sora hurried inside. He grabbed the rail near the doors and pressed himself as close to the wall as he could to give others around him room.

 

He was doing this for Riku. Hopefully Riku would just understand that.

 

 

 

 

Sora could smell the ocean the moment he stepped back on aboveground.

 

It was always refreshing, and especially after being jammed in underground, in closed and small place with a lot of people. Sora took a big gulp of air and released it slowly.

 

Then he turned to the where the signs signalled the coast would be, and took off running.

 

The crowd was a lot smaller here than it had been in the center of the city, and it thinned out even more the closer he got to the beach. The summer travelling season wasn’t there yet, so the tourist attractions weren’t pulling in masses yet.

 

Maybe they could come here after the schoolyear had ended. The amusement park near the beach had been fun, and it had been almost a tradition to get their special ice cream, the blue one that tasted like sea salt, and sit down pier and watch sea with all of the rides right behind them. Riku and Kairi would love that.

Sora stopped.

 

There was an amusement park near the beach. They sold blue ice cream that tasted like sea salt. They would sit on the pier and watch the sea, Sora holding his ice cream in one hand and in the other-

 

Sharp flash of pain cut through Sora’s head, and even though it was gone as fast as a blink of an eye, it still got Sora biting his teeth together, hissing at the sensation. He waited for a bit for the aftershock to go away, trying to get his bearings back.

 

“What…” Sora leaned his forehead to his fingers. What was that? A memory?

 

It couldn’t be anything else. And this time, unlike with the Christmas lights and the map, Sora was sure that it had been his memory. He could remember what the ice cream tasted like, salty and sweet at the same time, he could remember how he crumple his face at the saltiness but still eat. He remembered a laugh that was directed at his expression, and the feeling of a warm, soft hand that held his.

 

Whose hand it was? Nothing came up, no matter how Sora tried to return to the imagery. Just like before, there was only the feeling. A soft hand, bigger than his but still delicate and slender, holding his in a gentle grip.

Whoever it was, it felt good. Sora shook his head and straightened up. That was good enough for now.

 

He continued his running. The ocean was now so close that he could hear it’s whispering, though the words were still just a cluster of noises flowing together. The street turned to the left, slightly closer to the coastline.

 

“It should be around here…” Sora stretched his neck to see better.

“Ah, there!”

 

The sign of the underground station had faded a lot, making the white text hard to read against the worn-out paint around it. There were still signs of a construction around it, piles of gravel and rocks pushed to the background, with old pieces of cement stacked right next to them. There were several heavy locks on the doors to the stairs to underground, and they were secured tight with a chain.

 

Nope, not going through that one. That would’ve been too easy.

 

Sora crossed his arms and pouted while thinking. Right, he would have to find another way in. Was there another way in? Possibly somewhere, since the water had gotten in in the first place.

 

The ocean was still whispering, and Sora glanced over to the glistening water down the street.

 

That had worked with the tunnel at the cliffside. Follow the water.

 

“Sure”, he said.

“A little bit of water has nothing on me.”

 

 

                                                                                                                   ⋆

 

 

 

There were actually some people at the beach. It was not too crowded, but it was definitely a lot more than Sora was comfortable with.

He would have to be careful not to be spotted. Sora jogged down the sand to the water’s edge, trying to get as far as possible from the other beach-goers.

 

He could now hear the ocean more than clearly. Sora smiled at the waves.

 

“Hey”, he said.

“You think you could help me out?”

 

For a split second it seemed like the ocean was considering, before it started to whisper again.

 

_Follow me, I’ll show the way_ , it said, reaching to splash Sora’s feet. Sora retreated a couple of steps before his shoes got wet.

 

“These are new”, he said.

“My friend Kairi bought them for me, so I have to watch out.”

 

The ocean laughed, softly and kindly, waiting patiently as Sora took off his shoes and stepped to the water.

 

“So, where to?”

 

The waves sifted their flow, the current turning more to right from where Sora was standing. Sora could feel it against the soles of his feet, and he turned his head to the direction.

 

“Alright”, he said, starting to walk along the current.

“Soo, I would guess it’s towards the land, isn’t it? Is there like a tunnel or cave or something again? There was one back at home.”

 

The water was pleasantly warm on his skin, and even though the ocean could not nod, Sora was sure it was doing that right now.

“Okay, gotcha. Sorry I haven’t been around that much lately. I’ve been a little busy.”

 

The ocean understood, like always. Sora grinned.

 

“Thanks.”

 

The water got deeper as Sora got further away from the beach, same rate as the land surrounding the beach got higher. Sora had to raise his hands to keep the shoes dry as his pants definitely did get wet. it was starting to get a little too hard to walk, so pulled himself up to the next larger rock there was.

 

Sora tucked the shoes between the rock and the wall, and he went though his pockets. Kairi had told him that the phone was waterproof, but since it was dead, he wouldn’t need it right now anyways. Sora put it and the rest of the money inside his shoes (he would have to remember to retrieve them if he wanted to get back home, in case Riku didn’t have enough with him).

Only the key was left, then.

 

Sora looked at it for a couple of seconds, before putting it back to his pocket.

 

“I might need it”, he said.

“And it would suck to come back all the way here.”

 

Sora wasn’t stupid. He might’ve not gone in to a school for the past ten years, but he could figure out things on his own.

 

And after hearing the Guardian, Sora had figured something about the key.

 

First part he had figured out long ago. He used to keep the key with him all the time when he was younger, keeping it in his pockets rather than leaving it inside the lighthouse. He could still remember the utter horror he had felt one night, when he had realised that the key was not in his pocket anymore.

 

He must’ve somehow accidentally dropped it at some point of the day, without noticing it at all. And it was already getting really dark when Sora had realised it, and with the island being full of trees and little cracks between the rocks, it had been outright impossible for him to find it.

 

Though he hadn’t known why the key was so important, Sora had still known that it was, and a twelve-year-old him had cried himself to sleep, just for being so disappointed with himself for letting it get lost.

 

He had woken up late the next morning, throat and eyes still aching and dry from the tears, only to realise that the key was right there in his hand.

 

Sora had done some experiments. He had gone to the shore, and thrown the key as far to the sea as he possibly could.

The next morning the key was back again, tightly in his fist as he woke up.

 

It didn’t appear if he left it somewhere intentionally. If Sora put it in different room, under a rock on the island or buried it in sand (it was not like he had had much to do on the island, so hiding the key in various places had been one way to spend time), it stayed there until he came to retrieve it. But the second time Sora had tried to hide the key into the small beach the island had, and a storm had gone and washed it away, it dutifully returned the next day.

 

So he couldn’t actually get rid of the key. Sora was pretty sure that if someone took it without Sora giving it to them, it would again just teleport itself back to Sora. Which led to the next part he had figured out just recently.

 

It wasn’t enough for the men to get just the key. If the key had, for some reason, chosen Sora, it would mean that they needed both Sora and the key in order to use it.

…he should’ve probably told that to Riku. It had crossed Sora’s mind earlier, but he had felt absolutely no need to throw more fuel to Riku’s stress about the situation. So he had kept his mouth shut about it.

 

Sora removed the cap from his head and put it on top of the shoes.

 

“Don’t you dare to fly away”, he said to it, before taking in a deep breath and diving into the ocean.

 

Swimming with his legs had always been weird to Sora, but if he had learned anything after getting stuck in the fishing line, it was that he could never be too careful while being near humans. So he kicked down, following the current the ocean was showing him, and tried to ignore the unpleasant feeling of fabric around his legs.

 

He had to swim pretty deep before noticing the hole on the wall the current was flowing in to. Sora swam closer to the wall, peering inside the hole. It was big enough for someone four times bigger than him, so there would hopefully not be a possibility of getting stuck. Sora was really not a fan of getting stuck underwater.

 

He swam in and in to a short tunnel-like cave, and up from a crack in the ceiling of the cave.

 

Kairi had said something about an older cave system that was probably responsible for the railway tunnels collapsing, and Sora could see why they had reached that conclusion.

 

He had ended up in large cave, like a giant room, with multiple smaller and larger tunnels leading out from it, further inside. It was a little strange. Sora was not in no way an expert in geography or in construction or anything, but he had not expected ending up in a cave like this after such a short swim.

Sora swam closer to one wall, and gently knocked on to it.

 

The whole wall trembled, and Sora retreated fast, ready to dash out. Thankfully the trembling stopped, but there was now a new crack on the ceiling as Sora glanced up.

 

Yep. Sora could definitely see why they had come to that conclusion. He bit down on his cheek in concentration. Alright, carefully now. Don’t touch _anything._

 

Right. Sora closed his eyes for a bit, to just concentrate in to the current. A little to the right, then up, yep, there was one tunnel.

 

This one was a lot smaller and tighter than the one he had entered the cave, but nothing too bad. It was just a good thing he hadn’t changed his legs to his tail, no matter how uncomfortable swimming was like this. Tail would’ve probably prevented him from getting further from a few of tighter places with its lesser flexibility.

 

That tunnel was a lot longer than the first one, as well. It was getting pretty hard to not to touch the walls, and Sora could feel the burning beginning in his lungs. He would have to breathe soon.

 

_You’re almost there_ , ocean whispered in his ears. Sora gritted his teeth and kicked harder as the tunnel turned up again, to an almost straight line.

 

He didn’t see the surface that clearly before he was right in front of it, thanks to the lack of lighting, and then right away his head was out of the water and Sora breathed hard to fill his lungs again.

 

Sora looked around, and was greeted with complete darkness.

 

Oh, great. Or who was he kidding, this was far from great. Sora wasn’t very keen in finding out if the walls were still thin by hitting them and making a whole cave fall on top of him, but the reality was that he couldn’t even see his own hands when he lifted them in front of his face.

 

And of course he hadn’t thought about flashlight when leaving Kairi’s apartment. Sora pouted at the past version of himself making stupid decisions.

 

“Are you sure this is the right place?” he asked the ocean, which only whispered to him reassuring nothings.

“Okay, okay. I just have to think for a second.”

 

Very, very extremely carefully, Sora felt around him. The edges of the tunnel seemed to be pretty secure, and Sora reached his hand further tentatively.

 

His fingertips found solid, cold rock, and a little bit more touching around told him that it was a floor of another cave. Sora held his breath, and knocked slightly on the stone.

 

Nothing. He knocked again, harder this time. Still no trembling. Maybe this cave was sturdier than the last one. Hopefully. Sora braced himself, and pulled himself out of the water.

 

The floor was still completely silent and unmoving, even with Sora’s whole weight on top of it. So, the cave was not going to grumble in to pieces from slightest touch, but it was still completely dark. Water was dripping down somewhere, and the sound echoed loudly and many times around him, so Sora assumed that the cave was probably quite large.

 

So, he was in a dark and big cave with no light. Yeah, this seemed fine.

 

That was when Sora felt something warm against his leg. As he glanced down, he could see a faint, almost non-existent light shining through the wet fabric of his pants.

 

Sora swiftly put his hand in his pocket, where his fingers met a warm metal, and he pulled out the key. It was covered in almost ghostly glow, just so bright that Sora could see the outline of his palm as he looked at it.

 

“Oooookaaaaaay…” Sora tilted his head.

“This is new.”

 

He couldn’t remember the key ever shining or doing anything (if teleporting back to him didn’t count). It had certainly not shined when they had gone to the door at the cliffside, Sora was sure he would’ve noticed that.

But…why was it doing that in the first place? Sora frowned, and turned around, just a little bit.

 

The key suddenly glowed a little harder.

 

“What?” Sora asked the key, and took a step forward. The glow brightened again, juust a little, and did so again with a second step.

 

Oooh. So the key was playing some sort version of hot and cold with him. 

 

“Alright, lead the way then”, Sora said, taking another step.

 

He walked maybe forty or fifty feet before reaching a wall.

 

“Where to next?” Sora asked the key, which just glowed now so brightly, that Sora could actually see few feet around him. He tried turning to another direction, but that only caused the glow to dim.

“Seriously, it’s a wall. What do you want me to do?”

 

Of course the key didn’t answer, but that didn’t stop Sora from staring at it annoyedly.

 

“Fine, then let’s just stand here until you-“

 

Sora didn’t get to finish the sentence, because the sharp pain shot through his skull like electricity, and then he was standing in front of the wall again with a light in his other hand and the key in another, and in the wall was a small keyhole, looking like it was just carved in to the stone, making it almost impossible to find if he didn’t already know where to look.

 

_Remember to be patient, Sora_ , his dad used to say.

_Playing any instrument requires patience to practice and to notice even the smallest ways you can improve yourself. Same goes with making them. Now, let’s start that again-_

He was sitting in a workshop, watching as hands carved the wood, brushing of the excess and measuring the result. There was a smell of wood and glue, and Sora could name all of the instruments on the workbench. There were several planes used to the carving, long handle gouges nearby, and a bending iron.

Sora didn’t know yet how to make what the hands were making in front of him, but he liked to sit there and watch, and he had his own little planes he could use in making things out of the wood he was given to play with, and he would get praises and smiles for whatever he had made.

 

_It has to be done_. That wasn’t the voice of the owner of the hands in front of him.

Sora looked up, and there were people whose faces he couldn’t see, all looking at him, expecting him to say something.

 

“We have no other option”, Sora said, but he wasn’t the one moving his mouth and it wasn’t his voice that was speaking. He lowered his gaze, and there were another pair of eyes looking back at him, blue like a sky and widened with frighten.

 

Sora opened his mouth, and so did the blue-eyed boy in front of him, and Sora realised the moment he screamed that he was looking at himself doing it.

It was hot, scorching hot, and his lungs felt like they were being filled up, his eyes watering as the smoke stung them, and then he was cold.

 

Sora opened his eyes without realising he had closed them in the first place.

 

It was dark. He was cold and trembling slightly, and it took him a moment to realise that he was still in the cave, just curled up on the stone floor, clutching the still glowing key in his fist in a death-like grip.

His whole left side ached, and Sora pulled himself up to sit, still slightly disoriented. Had he fallen or what? It sure felt like it, Sora knew how forming bruises felt.

 

“What…what was...”, he breathed, his voice echoing like a breeze in the cave.

“Another memory?”

 

Like before, nothing else came up when Sora tried to grasp onto whatever he had just seen. Very carefully Sora stood up, rubbing his arm that was still throbbing with dull pain.  He looked at the wall in front of him, and raised the key.

 

It was like he had known where to look, because his hand moved like itself to the right place, the glow of the key lighting up the edges of the keyhole.

 

Sora pushed the key in and twisted it.

 

There was a tale-telling click, and when Sora pulled the key out, the wall shifted. Like there was an in-built mechanism the solid stone sank, and retreated beyond the floor, revealing a hole in the wall.

The key glowed even harder now, and it brightened when Sora stepped closer to the hole.

 

“This is it, then?” Sora asked out loud.

 

He was just about to step further, when urgent whispering reached him.

 

Sora turned around. The water in the hole on the floor which he had came in to the cave was almost boiling with all of the words, and Sora hurried back to it, dropping down next to it on his knees.

 

“What is it?” he asked. He couldn’t make out of the words as they all blended in together in almost panicked mess, but the message was more than clear.

 

_Help!_

Sora’s stomach turned in to ice, and he dived back in to the water.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back again!
> 
> Oh boy. It has been a long time, last chapter was published almost a month ago. I had the beginning of this chapter done weeks ago, but September has not been nice to me.
> 
> It was nice to write from someone else's point of view for once. Sora has been the focus of this fic for almost an 80, 000 words, and we haven't yet to seen what is going on inside his head. A lot it seems (this chapter honestly had originally much more gushing about Riku in it but I had to cut it down for the sake of the flow of this, buuut I think we're going to get back to it at some point)
> 
> So, here we go again! I hope life will go a little bit smoother for me from now on, at least for a while.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *looks at the last chapter published in September* whoops.
> 
> So, hey! First of all, a big thank you for all of you who are still reading this, despite the longer gap between the chapters! All of you who even glance in the direction of this fic make me happy!
> 
> Second of all, there's couple of warnings to give: if you get unsettled by dolls and slight mentions of dislocated limbs etc., proceed the ending half of this chapter with a little bit more caution. 
> 
> (and this chapter is also mainly build-up and this is where the other sci-fi and fantasy elements and the Ocean girl-inspired tags come in...)

Riku stared at the closed underground station.

He was still breathing hard, his heart beating rapidly as adrenaline ran its course through his veins. The last three hours had been the longest of his whole life, and he had build up so much energy during them that his muscles had already been burning by the time the bus had pulled up at the stop.

Using the underground would have been more simple to get around in the foreign city, but Riku didn’t have the patience to that anymore. If he’d had to be inside of a moving vehicle with no control of his direct movements for even another minute, he would’ve lost it completely.

So he had picked up a direction and ran.

 

He had most likely pushed around few dozens of people and caused at least three danger situations on his way, but Riku had not had it in himself to stop to even say sorry to everyone he had jostled while running past them in the crowd. He had used all of his care in getting himself to where he was supposed to be as quickly as possible, and he was ready to cause some accidental bruises and slightly hurt feelings on his way.

 

Riku was, in the back of his mind, surprised for the fact that he had been able to remember the location of the right station that easily. Maybe the adrenaline was causing his brain to run on higher speed as well, making it easier for him to pull out even the tiniest details in the moment of rush. For a while everything had seemed like he was running through a tube from one point to another, with all the distractions around him muted and slowed down while every part of his body worked faster and faster by every step he took.

 

So there he was, looking at the station and it’s heavily and securely chained doors, feeling catching up to his limbs and lungs as the times slowed down back to normal. Riku gulped for air, trying to get his heartbeat and mind to slow down as well.

 

The first and the most important thing he had to focus was the fact that Sora wasn’t there.

 

Riku didn’t even know what he had actually expected. That Sora, who had hours of head start on him would be there, nicely waiting for him when Riku finally got himself there as well? That he would be standing there, rocking back and forth on his feet and smile at Riku and say _I’m sorry that I ran away, let’s go back?_

Of course it wasn’t that easy. Those scenarios only happened in the perfect universe where nothing went wrong, and not in reality where Sora could be absolutely anywhere.

 

If he had even made it this far in the first place.

 

No, no no no no. Bad brain. Bad brain shut up. Riku violently shook his head and rubbed his face with both of his hands, pushing his hair away from his forehead where it had stuck flat with sweat. He would not allow himself to think destructive thoughts. Riku already knew that it would end up in him mentally and physically going around in circles that would lead him absolutely nowhere. He couldn’t afford that now.

 

The counsellor in school had advised him to do a lot of different things to help cope with his anxiety, though at the time most of them had sounded like some old aunt trying to tell him how to live his life without actually knowing anything about it. Riku had already had most of his thankfully very short-lived stubborn phase before that, but sentences like “broad your view” and “decide whether a thought is helpful” had still sounded like things anyone would say to him and then expect him to just stop feeling bad instantly.

Riku still didn’t know how he should’ve been actually effectively been able to just decide if he wanted to think about something, because in all honestly it sounded unreasonably difficult with this mind moving like a hurricane trapped inside his skull, but it did sound a lot better than just standing there and staring at the very not helpful station doors. Riku pressed his fingers tightly against his scalp and tried to think.

 

If he was going to decide which thoughts very helping him, then the one where Sora had vanished somewhere in between the two cities could be thrown away off the bat. It tried to grab on onto back of his head, but Riku shoved it down so hard it actually made his head throb slightly. He was going to be strict this time. He had promised to himself so many times that this was the last time he was ever going to think too much, but it had always fallen flat, so he wasn’t even going to try that right now. Now it was just “don’t think too much for the next two hours and then you can panic again”, and that Riku could do. He had to.

 

Sora was so going to hear what Riku exactly thought of this once he’d get to him.

 

Right. Riku massaged his head and glanced around. If he was going to continue with the only think helpful thoughts-method, he was going to have to come up with a helpful thought. If Sora not getting this far was discarded, he could go to the exact opposite. Riku moved his hands down, his fingers coming to rub his temples. So in the helpful thought scenario Sora had gotten this far, and he had seen the same as Riku, which was that the station was closed so tightly that there was no going in through there.

 

Sora was smart enough to figure something out, Riku knew that. He was impulsive, Riku had noticed, but not stupid. Riku would just have to try and figure out what it was Sora had come up with.

 

Think, Riku, think. If you were Sora, and you wanted to get in to underground cave system full of water, where would you go?

 

_Probably anywhere_ , Riku’s mind sneered at him.

_Do you really think you can accomplish something by just trying to assume what Sora would do? You’re just wasting your time while he could be in-_

No, no, shut up. Riku pressed his blunt nails against his skin, trying to distract the thought from getting any further from that. Sora was fine. Sora was fine. He had to be.

 

Sora was _definitely_ going to get more than few words from Riku once he’d found him.

 

Last time it had been so easy. Well, not easy, but at least they had all been together and searching for the right place. Now it was just Riku alone, trying his best not to succumb to a pathetic, stressing mess.

No, those weren’t helpful thoughts either. Focus, Riku. Concentrate on the task in front of you.

 

Easier said than done, Riku thought bitterly before he could stop himself. He was still alone. Kairi was not there to tell reassurances to him, and Sora was not there saying that they should just follow the water.

 

Riku lifted his head from his hands. He turned to look down the road.

 

He could see the ocean from where he stood, the sun shining from the moving surface, making it look more like waves of liquid light than water. Riku couldn’t hear it all the way from there, but he could still feel it pulling, like it had done all his life, no matter how close or far he’d been from it.

 

Sora could speak with the ocean. Better than Riku, it had seemed. Where in Riku only felt the words more than he heard them, Sora had sounded like he could actually hear clear voices all the time.

Wherein Riku seriously doubted that he could go and ask bypassers if they’d seen a young man with wild brown hair and the world’s bluest eyes and someone would actually be able to tell him anything, the ocean would know who he was talking about. At least Riku hoped so. It had worked before, right?

 

_The ocean would know if Sora himself actually went to speak to it,_ the voice in Riku’s head clawed its way back up from where Riku had forced it.

_If he did not, you’re just wasting your time._

“You’re not helping”, Riku hissed, and started running again.

 

                                                                                                                     ⋆

 

Other people on the beach worried him. There were not that much, but there were still enough to give him the unwanted attention.

 

It was moments like these when Riku really disliked his appearance. He wasn’t the tallest guy around, surely, but he was still tall and had broad shoulders and light hair, and Riku knew that in general, he was good looking, and that he sometimes tended to gather eyes on him in public places.

 

He tried to avoid all the people, walking as swiftly as possible and making his best effort to look as small as possible. He kind of missed being able to at least fake some confidence, because the more invisible Riku tried to be, the more visible he felt. He probably just looked like he was sneaking around (which he was, to be honest), instead of just casually walking down the beach.

Riku clenched his fists and then relaxed them again, wiping his palms on his pants to get rid of the sweat. There were people swimming, and Riku steered as far away from them as he could, quickly kicking his shoes off and walking to the shallow water.

 

It always helped to the pulling to be in physical contact with the water. Riku felt his heart coming to beat slower, the nervous burning of his skin cooling down, and for a couple of seconds it was easier to breathe and be.

 

But he couldn’t just stand there and enjoy himself.

 

“Hey”, Riku murmured.

“…are you listening?”

 

Riku still wasn’t exactly sure of his this worked. Was he speaking to the ocean, or was the ocean speaking to him? Could the ocean just suddenly decide that it didn’t want to talk to him anymore? It had only started back when he’d met Sora, so clearly the ocean could do that.

 

Right then only things he could hear were people talking behind him, kids screaming from either joy or because they just dropped their ice creams to the sand, and persistent screeching of the seagulls looking for an easy meal. The waves lapped against his calves, splashing hard at the rocks, but they stayed silent.

 

Great. Riku drew in few deep breaths to calm himself when his body started to prickle again unpleasantly.

 

“Look”, he said.

“I’m looking for Sora. You know him, I know that. He ran off and I’m trying to find him, but he isn’t answering his phone and I don’t know where he is, so you’re kinda like my only option, so…”

 

He had tried to call Sora over and over again during the ride to the city, but again and again the only thing he had heard was the monotone voice of a woman telling him that the number he was trying to reach was out of order. Riku pushed away the thought of what that could possibly mean.

 

The ocean stayed silent. Riku swallowed hard to get his throat to open up.

 

“Please”, he said, looking at the water swirling around his legs.

 

The ocean still stayed silent, but faintly, Riku could feel it shifting. The waves rocking against his skin relented, only barely climbing up, almost as if the waves were hesitating.

Then he felt the pull.

 

It almost startled him. Riku jumped a bit when he felt the water snake under his feet, suddenly much warmer in the contrast of the water surrounding him. The splashing against the rocks wasn’t just sound of the water colliding anymore, but full of whispers flying to the air with the hundreds of drops.

 

_Follow me_ , it felt like, the pulling growing stronger. _Follow._

Riku took a step forward. The warm water flowed away from the beach, right to towards the higher rocks surrounding the beach. Riku rolled up his pant legs, and started walking along the current.

 

He eased up slightly as he got further away from other people, the rocks coming to shield him from prying eyes. There thankfully weren’t any boats nearby either, though Riku doubted that he would’ve been spotted anyway from this far away.

The water got steadily deeper, and on the contrary to earlier, Riku was thankful about his height, as it made it easier for him to keep walking through the water even when it climbed higher and higher up his legs. He had fished out his phone and wallet from his pocket, and held them higher up on his other hand, his shoes in the other, to prevent them from getting wet.

 

He would have to find somewhere to put them soon, though. If the water got any higher from this, he would have to start swimming, and that would be impossible without getting himself completely soaked.

The current pulled him towards the rocks against the wall, and it was then Riku noticed something bright red peeking from between the wall and one of the rocks.

 

Riku quickly made his way to the rock, and pulled himself up.

 

It was a cap. Red cap with the logo of his university on it, placed securely on top of a pair of way too familiar looking shoes.

Riku felt the relief wash over him so intensely that he forgot to actually breathe for a moment. Sora had actually made it this far. He was somewhere here and would _hopefully_ be alright.

 

Riku leaned his face on his hands, trying to remember how to breathe again. He felt so empty after the big, heavy pile had vanished from his stomach, leaving him so light that he almost felt completely weightless. It took him awhile to ground himself again, and Riku lifted his face with much more energy on his limbs than just few minutes ago.

 

“Alright”, Riku sighed, patting his cheeks. He glanced at the water.

“Thank you.”

 

So Sora had made it this far. Right. It meant that he had actually found something, judging from the fact that he had felt necessary to get rid of most of his things, probably for the same reason as Riku.

 

But that roused a new question. Where was Sora now?

 

Riku glanced at the water again.

 

“Do you know?” he asked. He couldn’t make out the words, but the faint whispers of the waves sounded reassuring enough to him. Riku hastily put his shoes next to Sora’s, putting his wallet and phone inside of them. He could see that Sora’s phone was inside of one of his shoes, and Riku pulled it out.

It didn’t turn on, but as Riku pressed the power button long enough, the red light started flashing on top of the screen for a few seconds before turning back off. So the battery had only ran empty, nothing else.

 

It still didn’t change the fact that Sora was getting some carefully selected words from him.

 

Riku put the phone back in to the shoe, and hopped back to the water.

 

“Okay, where to next?” he asked.

 

Sora was shorter than him, so he probably stopped this early to put his things down because of walking getting difficult. And Sora was a really good swimmer, so he was most likely more comfortable doing that in water anyway.

The only thing that bugged Riku was fact that Sora’s pants weren’t in the same pile as his shoes, which meant that he hadn’t changed his legs to his tail, before he felt the pulling again.

 

It was now clearly a current, swirling around his legs that barely touched the rocky bottom anymore, and it took Riku a couple of seconds to realise that it was pulling him _down._

 

“Oh”, Riku breathed.

 

This…could be a problem. Sora could hold his breath way longer than Riku, and his underwater vision was much clearer than Riku’s as well, so swimming underwater was a lot easier to Sora than it was to Riku. Which meant that Sora could most likely reach places Riku couldn’t.

But the current still kept pulling him down, and Riku breathed in.

 

“Okay”, he said, and took in another breath, and another, until he felt like it was the most air he could possibly get in his lungs, and he dived.

 

The salt water prickled his eyes, but Riku forced them to stay open. They would adjust soon enough like they always did. He let himself sink until buoyancy grabbed him, which was when he started to kick to swim deeper under the surface.

His jeans weighted him down and made it harder to kick his legs, but Riku kept swimming down, gritting his teeth together trying to keep the air in his lungs. The current still flowed deeper, and Riku gritted his teeth harder as his lungs started to burn. At least it was getting significantly easier to see.

 

The burning in his lungs was getting more and more intense, but Riku was pretty sure he still had some time as he finally felt the current tilt slightly to the side, towards the blackness on the surface of the wall.

 

Riku swam closer. The hole in the wall was bigger than him, and as he peeked inside, he saw the faint outlines of the walls leading up to a short tunnel.

The current kept flowing inside to it, and Riku ignored the ever-growing burn in his chest, and he swam inside.

 

The tunnel wasn’t very long, and it ended to a solid wall, with a large crack on the ceiling. It was a little tight for him, but Riku squeezed himself past it.

 

Maybe he should’ve thought about this twice.

 

He had swam into a much larger cave, filled with water and completed with many, many other tunnels leading everywhere. At least Riku thought they were tunnels. Without the light coming from the surface, it was getting really hard for him to see anything.

Maybe it was like seeing in the dark. His eyes would take some time to get adjusted to it. The only problem was that Riku didn’t think he really had that kind of time with him.

 

He had already held his breath for much longer than he’d thought it was even possible, and in any other situation, Riku would’ve been happy about it. It meant that his merpeople blood was actually giving him some benefits, even if they weren’t as apparent as Sora’s.

 

But now he was running out of air, and fast.

 

Riku clenched his jaws and bit down, _hard_. The burning was now almost impossible to ignore, and it was making it difficult for him to focus on anything else. He could still feel the current, flowing warm and comforting past him, but it was growing colder and colder every second, like it was slipping from him.

_Good going,_ the voice in his head laughed coldly. _You berate Sora from doing stupid things, and then you go and swim in an underwater cave without thinking. You’re not Sora, you can’t do this the same way he can._

 

Shut up, Riku hissed to it, more panicked than he wanted. You’re really not helping now.

 

Focus on the current. Focus where it’s going, not on the voice inside your head. His eyes were adjusting to the dark, but not very rapidly, so it was still mostly just blurry darkness with vaguely drawn lines for him.

Riku kicked and swam after what he could still feel of the current. It was seriously getting colder at the same rate the burning worsened and spread from his chest to his neck and stomach, and Riku was sure that it was because of his slipping concentration.

 

_Don’t worry,_ the ocean’s voice was just a faint breath, not even a whisper, one Riku could barely hear over the drumming in his ears.

_He’s coming for you._

The meaning of the words didn’t even reach Riku properly, when he suddenly felt something grab his arms.

Then he was dragged and pushed up, inside one of the holes in the cave, to another tunnel. Riku felt pushing on the bottom of his feet, ushering him up, and he gritted his teeth so hard it hurt, and he kicked.

 

His knee hit one of the walls, and Riku could feel the trembling more than he heard of it.

 

Suddenly the little water inside the tunnel around him was shaking, throwing him side to side and making him hit the wall again. He barely registered the pushing on his feet again, but he noticed it when he realised his was still moving upwards, even though he had stopped swimming.

Riku did feel the last push clearly. It was more like he was being launched up, and then all of a sudden, his head was outside of water, and so was his upper body and most of his legs, and he collapsed against hard, cold surface.

 

“Move!” his legs were being pushed out of the way, and Riku mustered enough energy from in between his gasping for air that he could roll further away from the water.

 

The drumming in his ears was still loud, almost drowning all the other noises, and Riku could register the footsteps only when they hurried right next to him.

 

“Riku!” there was a hand on his shoulder and then another one on his face, pushing his hair back from his face.

“Hey, are you okay?”

 

Riku hadn’t realised that he had closed his eyes, not until he had to force them back open.

 

There was a faint, blue glow, and it made Sora’s face in front of him look almost haunting, as it illuminated only half of it and made his skin look more pale and his big, blue eyes to have pallid hue to them.

 

“Riku?” Sora’s eyebrows crunched down in worry, and Riku only then also realised that he had just stared at Sora without saying anything.

 

He shot up to his knees and tried to stand, but even in the almost complete darkness Riku could see the world tilting to the side, and the drumming grew louder for a split moment.

 

“Hey, hey, careful”, Sora grabbed his arm again, doing his best to steady him.

“Are you okay?”

 

“I’m…” Riku croaked, sucking in a deep lungful of air.

“What the fuck were you thinking?!”

 

Sora flinched visibly, and again, a little late, Riku realised that he had shouted his words, which now bounced around them from the walls invisible in the darkness.

Well, he had thought of giving Sora a piece of his mind, multiple times, but now that the words had left his mouth, Riku only felt bad.

 

There was a long pause between them, as Riku tried to think of anything else to say, and during which Sora’s eyes changed to have that hard, almost cold look in them, and from it Riku knew that he had fucked up.

 

“I’m sorry”, Sora said, before Riku could say anything else. He lifted his chin, looking at Riku straight to the eyes, his own unwavering.

“I didn’t mean to make you worry, but I’m not going to just sit there and wait that something bad happens, not after everything you’ve done for me- “

 

Yeah. There it was.

 

Riku’s anger was completely gone, which wasn’t a surprise for him anymore, as Sora had that kind of effect on him, but in its place, there was now a cold knot of guilt and shame. Of course Sora cared too, and Riku had been unfair and selfish in caring only about his own, unhelpful thoughts.

 

You worry because you care, he had said that himself, and he had tried to take away that from Sora, without meaning it or not.

 

The knot got tighter and Riku had to prevent himself from swallowing audibly.

 

 “- and I know it’s scary, but you getting hurt is much more scarier, and I just wanted to- “

 

“Sora”, Riku lifted his hand, making Sora stop in the middle of the sentence, his mouth open to an unspoken word.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

 

Sora blinked, snapped his mouth shut, blinked, and then opened his mouth again.

 

“Wait, what?” he asked, blinking now rapidly like there was something in his eyes.

“What, hold on, aren’t you mad at me?”

 

Now it was time for Riku to flinch.

 

“No”, he hurried to say.

“I mean, I was, but – “

 

That would’ve been unfair to you, he meant to say, but Sora interrupted him by a loud, open mouthed laugh.

 

“Oh thank god”, he wheezed, grinning widely at Riku.

“I was so worried that you were going to be _so_ mad and I tried really hard to come up with good enough words and then _you_ say that _you’re_ sorry!”

 

That stung even harder. Riku flinched again.

 

“I’m sorry”, he repeated, casting his eyes down.

 

“Oh no, no no, don’t look like that!” Sora started to rub Riku’s arm up and down.

“It’s not like I’m scared of you getting mad or anything, I just don’t want you to stress out and pop a vein or something!”

 

“I would pop a vein even without you”, Riku muttered, slowly lifting his eyes again.

“I’m still sorry.”

 

“Okay, okay”, Sora said, then huffed.

“Well, you should be! Do you have any idea how scared I got when you tried to _drown_ yourself?!”

 

“I was not trying to drown myself!” Riku rasped out.

 

“Then what were you doing?” Sora squinted his eyes.

“Because that was a good length even for me to hold my breath, and you just decided to follow me without thinking?”

 

“Well I wasn’t thinking!” it was a bad defence, but it was true.

“I’m sorry!”

 

“Good”, Sora said gravely, but in the faint glow, Riku could see that his eyes, despite the hard determination in them, didn’t hold any malice.

“Well, then. Since the way out from here through the cave is now closed, we have to think of something else.”

 

That got Riku fully in the reality again.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

“Kairi said that the subway tunnel collapsed because of the cave system or something”, Sora said.

“The whole cave there was in the verge of collapsing as well, and you kind of hit the walls on the way here.”

 

He pointed over Riku’s shoulder, and Riku whipped his head around.

 

In the darkness it was nearly impossible to see the hole on the ground, but Riku saw the outlines of it. He crawled closer to it and peeked down.

 

There was still water in the hole, Riku could see the surface of it moving slightly, but as Sora got closer and the pale light lighted up the hole, Riku could also see the hard edges of rocks just few feet beneath them, closing the tunnel tightly.

 

Riku was not claustrophobic, but he couldn’t deny that there was an uncomfortable squeeze inside his stomach.

 

“Okay”, he said, nodding to himself.

“Okay.”

 

“Not to worry!” Sora said, patting him on the back.

“I already found and opened the door!”

 

“What?” Riku asked, yet again, and turned to look at Sora so quickly he almost mashed his face at his.

“What door?”

 

“That over there!” Sora pointed the key towards somewhere to their left in to the looming darkness.

 

The brief lack of oxygen had probably made his brain a bit jumbled, because Riku couldn’t otherwise fathom how he hadn’t noticed before that the key was _glowing._

 

“Wait, wait, why is it doing that?” Riku asked. His eyes darted frantically from the key to Sora, making sure that he was not seeing his own and that the key was actually surrounded by pale light, just only so bright that he could see Sora being there right next to him.

 

Sora turned to look at him, and then at the key as well.

 

“Oh, yeah”, he said.

“It started doing that when I got here, and it showed me the door.”

 

He grabbed Riku’s hand again, only this time it was his fingers and not his bicep, and he tugged lightly. Riku stood up, relieved for the fact that he didn’t feel dizzy anymore, and followed Sora across the darkness.

 

The key started glowing harder with every step, and Riku could see the door before they actually got to it. It was more like a door-shaped hole in the wall than an actual door, and it was so dark on the other side that despite the glowing growing even brighter, Riku could only see more darkness on the edges of the light.

 

Riku was not afraid of the dark either, but the uncomfortable squeeze in his stomach returned again.

 

“So the key showed you this?” he asked, hoping that his voice didn’t sound too tight.

 

“Yeah”, Sora nodded. He didn’t sound worried at all. So it was just Riku again.

“I think it’s a back door or something like that. Like a secondary exist.”

 

“How do you know that?” Riku asked, turning to look at Sora again. For a second Sora looked hesitant, but then he shrugged.

 

“I got some visions”, he said then.

“More memories, I guess.”

 

If there hadn’t been any strains in his voice before, there were now, and Riku felt alarm flare up in him.

 

“Sora – “

 

“My phone is dead”, Sora interrupted him.

“Do you have yours with you?”

 

Riku snapped his mouth shut, and shook his head.

 

“No”, he said.

“I left it outside, next to yours.”

 

“Okay”, Sora said.

“We should probably get going, before Kairi is going to absolutely murder both of us.”

 

Right. Kairi. Shame burned Riku’s cheeks as he realised that he had not at any point even considered of telling Kairi what was going on.

 

“She’s going to murder us anyway”, he sighed.

 

“But maybe a little less painfully if we’re not back too late”, Sora said.

“C’mon.”

 

He gave Riku’s hand another tug, and Riku sighed.

 

“Right, he said, and they stepped inside.

 

                                                                                                                       ⋆

 

Riku tried not to think about the key too hard.

 

It had already become extremely clear that it was not a normal key. Riku was sure that it was his very human upbringing that made him, even after all that had happened, to marvel at every new thing that they came across. Sora, on the other hand, didn’t pay much attention to the key and its sudden new life as a torch with a build in compass. He only seemed to care about it as much as anyone would about their only source of light in a pitch-black cave under the ocean.

 

Riku was not afraid of the dark. He was not afraid of closed places. He was not afraid of the combination of those two, at least not more than it was rational for a human being to be (and at that, Riku thought it was very much rational to be scared of dark, closed places). It wasn’t even their first time doing this, but Riku could still tell that this time, it was different.

 

Riku had still not forgotten the tingling, the itchy feeling that made him scratch his skin despite there not being anything irritating it in real life. He still remembered vividly the freezing chills running down his back, his arms and legs, making every part of his body quiver.

 

There wasn’t anything like that now. There was only silence. Dead, heavy silence that surrounded them like a fog.

 

Even the air around them felt dead and heavy. Riku didn’t doubt that, as he also doubted that anyone had been there in years. The air wasn’t dry, but thick and moist, so he couldn’t see dust flowing around as they moved thought the dark corridor, but nothing around him felt clean, far from it.

 

It was just so _quiet._ Too quiet, as Riku was sure that he could actually hear his own breath loud and crisp like it was shouting and not just _breathing._

And that was what got him the most. The feeling that everything around them was dead. Like they were stepping inside of a tomb.

 

The only thing that Riku could enjoy in that moment was the fact that Sora was still holding his hand.

 

After hugging, after holding hands before, after almost _kissing_ him (or at least it had seemed like that, Riku did not know what he would do if he had understood it completely wrong), holding hands wouldn’t have been such a big thing. But Sora’s hand, smaller than his, with skin slightly calloused and warm, inside of Riku’s own, made Riku feel ridiculously secure. Riku suppressed the need of wanting to run his thumb across the back of Sora’s hand, just to feel the skin, alive and there, to move with the touch.

It was ridiculous. So much that it made Riku himself almost laugh. In every sense it should’ve been him trying to make Sora feel safe in a place like this, not other way around.

 

But there Sora was, walking a step ahead of him, illuminating the way for them, holding Riku’s hand tightly. He hadn’t said anything in a while, and Riku could see that his brow was furrowed in concentration, and he really couldn’t blame Sora for not feeling very talkative. The air was compressing Riku’s own will of opening his mouth and saying anything, making his lips feel tacky and sticking to each other.

 

One part of Riku hoped that Sora would be his normal, talkative self. Riku really did not want to hear his own breathing like it was someone else breathing down his neck, right next to his ear. He wanted to be distracted from it, from hearing it air coming in and out, from feeling the air sticking to his skin and making it to go on goose pumps.

But at the same time, he wanted to hear it, just in case.

 

Riku pinched the bridge of his nose. He wasn’t afraid of dark, closed places, but he was still just a human (well, mostly human at least), and walking down a dark, closed place was not at the top of the list of activities humans found comfortable.

 

Riku glanced to his side. Unlike in the cave at the cliff, the walls here were completely straight and smooth, making it clear that they were build on purpose to be easy to navigate. This place was not supposed to be a hideout like the other one, that was for sure. But what was it, then?

 

They had been walking for a while now. Riku looked over his shoulder, careful not to mess up his steps and trip. He couldn’t see the door anymore, the corridor behind them being cloaked completely in darkness, the edge of the light following them as they walked forwards.

(It was the edge of the light following them, not the edge of the darkness-)

 

There was not other way to go than forward, Riku knew that. The tunnel through the cave had collapsed, sealing them in, and they had walked on the straight line the whole time, surrounded by walls made out of hard, solid rock.

 

Riku was not afraid of the dark. It was just the silence, the feeling of dead air going inside of his lungs and slowly but surely filling them-

 

Riku straight out _jumped_ when Sora suddenly started to cough.

 

They sounded bad. Loud and racked, like he had been holding it in for quite some time now. In the silence they sounded even more loud, like Sora was coughing straight to Riku’s ear as hard as he possibly could.

 

“Sora?” Riku stepped closer, trying to calm his racing heart as he pressed his palm on Sora’s back. Sora still coughed, drawing in breaths between his teeth in between them, before going in another fit.

“Sora?”

 

Riku rubbed Sora’s back, up and down and in circles, until the coughing eased down and left Sora wheezing and panting, his fists clutching his shirt tightly.

 

“Sora?” Riku called again, coming to rest his other hand on Sora’s shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

 

Sora breathed in a couple of times more before nodding.

 

“Yeah”, he said, voice hoarse.

“Yeah. Sorry. I was trying to hold them in, but…”

 

He coughed again, but luckily only couple of times now, not going into another fit.

 

Oh. So that was why he had been so quiet this whole time.

 

“This is not a class, Sora”, Riku said, gently running his palm up and down Sora’s back again.

“You can cough if you need to. I'm not going to tell you not to.”

 

“Yeah”, Sora said, breathing in.

“I know. It was just…quiet.”

 

Riku had thought that he was just being paranoid like he always, wanting to keep quiet in case of he’d have to hear something. Hearing Sora say it made Riku’s stomach squeeze uncomfortably again, and he turned around to look behind them, almost instinctively.

 

There was still nothing more than darkness there, unmoving like the air and silence around them. Riku swallowed. His mouth was feeling tacky now, too, not just his lips, and it was more difficult to get anything down than before.

 

“Breathe in for a while”, Riku murmured, reluctantly turning back to look at Sora. Sora had now let go of his shirt with his right hand, left still holding the fabric inside of the fist.

 

Now that the silence was broken, Riku decided that it would be a good moment to talk. It was still making him uncomfortable to fill the silence even more than they already had, but Riku was not sure if keeping quiet made him more nervous than talking, so he would lose either way.

 

“You said you had visions of more memories?” Riku asked, keeping his voice down.

“Do you know what this place is?”

 

Sora didn’t answer right away. He seemed to think for a moment, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, before shaking his head.

 

“Not really”, he said, clearing his throat.

“I just saw someone with the key opening the door, and I know this leads to somewhere, but I don’t know where.”

 

Sora swallowed audibly, and opened his mouth like he was going to say something more, but then decided against it and closed it again, focusing on breathing once more.

 

“Sora?” Riku asked.

“Did you see something else?”

 

Sora didn’t answer him right away this time either.

 

“Yeah”, he said then.

“But it’s not important now. We can talk about it once we get out of here, okay?”

 

He finally straightened his back, taking in one last deep breath before turning to face Riku.

 

“I know this leads to somewhere”, he said.

“And there’s no other way out, so we have to just keep going.”

 

Riku knew that. But the squeezing of his stomach had not let go of him completely, instead leaving him feel slightly strangulated.

 

“Right”, he said. Sora smiled at him. It was not his usual huge and bright smile, but it was still a genuine one, and it made Riku feel just a little bit better. Sora grabbed his hand again and turned around, raising the key to show them the way.

 

Riku raised up his chin and took in a deep breath, just to ground him. He heard it in his ears, the air being sucked in and then out, in, out-

 

Riku blinked.

 

He was still holding his breath.

 

Riku spluttered, coughing out the air he was holding, and he turned to look around frantically.

 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Just hard and solid walls all around him, so close that if he’d reach with both of his hands, his fingers would grace them on both sides.

 

There was still nothing behind him beside the darkness. Riku knew there was nothing in the darkness. There was no other way out or in behind them.

 

There was nothing in there.

 

They hadn’t even taken one full step, and Sora stopped, turning around and lighting Riku’s face with the key.

 

“Riku?” he asked, blue eyes wide.

 

Riku took in another breath. Held it in. There was not breathing in his ears.

 

“Riku?”

 

“It’s nothing”, Riku said, squeezing Sora’s hand reassuringly, even though his stomach was now close to being painfully tight.

“It’s nothing. Let’s go.”

 

Sora turned around slowly, cautiously taking a step forward. Riku took a one more glance over his shoulder.

 

It was just darkness. He was not afraid of the dark.

 

Riku turned to look at the back of Sora’s head, relishing the feeling of warm skin against his.

 

There was nothing in there.

 

 

 

Riku tried to keep track on how long they walked.

He lost the count couple of times, but he still estimated that they had been walking for little over ten minutes more from their first stop.

 

Sora had taking his words and didn’t try to hold in the coughs anymore. The fits were first getting less intense, probably because Sora would now let them out frequently, but then after the ten minutes or so, they had to stop again.

 

Sora leaned his hands against his knees, his head bowing down as the coughed, somehow sounding wet and dry at the same time. He sounded like Riku did when he’d got the flu and got his throat and nostrils and everything full of gung he’d then needed to sneeze and spit out constantly.

Hearing it made Riku want to cough, too, on top of the feeling of the tackiness spreading from his mouth down to his throat, making it feel like it was trying to close in on him. Just clearing it by hawking had worked so far, but it was getting more and more irritating by every passing minute.

 

Sora gagged in between the coughs, making Riku flinch while he tried to gently coerce the whatever was making Sora cough out of his lungs by patting and rubbing his back while he doubled over.

 

“Sorry”, Sora squealed, rubbing his mouth on the crook of his arm. In the bright light the key emitted, the shadows on his face looked coarse.

 

He looked exhausted.

 

“It’s alright”, Riku said, doing his best to keep his alarm under control for a little longer. This was not right.

 

The air still hung around them, thick and stiff, and Riku could swear that if it was possible, it had gotten even more dense and humid, making it unpleasant to breathe in. It was really starting to remind Riku of all the stories he had read about people going in to ancient tombs and places like that, where no one had been in thousands of years, and waking whatever horrible curses there had been sealed in to haunt the world of the living.

 

He had been good in reading them with voices to his younger cousins, pretty convincingly even, as his aunt had prohibited him from doing so after his youngest cousin at the time had gotten too scared and started to crawl on her parent’s bed at nights because of the nightmares.

Riku had not been scared of the stories, but that didn’t mean that he wanted to be a part of one.

 

Sora had stopped coughing, and he was now carefully straightening his back. Riku could see the drops of sweat glistening on his forehead, few running down already on his cheeks and chin.

 

“Are you alright?” Riku asked. Sora nodded.

 

“Yeah”, he said. He swiped his face with his palms, then rubbing them on his pants. His clothes were still damp, clinging slightly to his body. So were Riku’s, but at least they had both stopped dripping water a while ago.

 

“You don’t look okay”, Riku pointed out.

“Or sound okay.”

 

If anything, Sora looked and sounded completely miserable, tired and sick. He had been fine before they had stepped in from the door. People didn’t get sick that fast, at least not humans, and Riku was completely sure that neither did merpeople.

 

“I know”, Sora swallowed, which made him cough again. He rubbed his throat, wincing a little when he pressed at the bruises there.

“The air smells horrible.”

 

That was new.

 

“What do you mean?” Riku asked. The air was dense and hard to breath, that was for sure, but he didn’t smell anything.

 

“It does”, Sora said.

“It smells like burned plastic. Or something rotten. Or like…you know how it smells like in gas stations? Double that.”

 

Riku frowned. Those were pretty distinct and strong smells, ones that he knew too and would surely recognise, especially if they were so strong that Sora could smell them.

 

“Are you sure?” he asked. Sora scoffed.

 

“Of course I’m sure!” he said, frowning too.

“Don’t you smell it?”

 

Riku wanted to say no, but as he drew in another breath through his nose, he had to admit that there was faint, sharp smell of something.

 

“A little”, he said.

“But it’s not bad or anything.”

 

Sora groaned. He sniffed, coughed again a couple of times, and rubbed his face again, more forcefully this time.

 

“Well, it’s not like we can just stand here and wonder about it”, he muttered grimly, which was very unlike of him.

 

“Are you sure this leads to somewhere?” Riku asked, as they continued their way. He had given up of not caressing Sora’s hand in his, slowly rubbing hopefully somewhat comforting circles on the back of it.

 

“I’m sure”, Sora answered.

“I’m just…not sure how long this is going to take.”

 

That was what worried Riku. Sora was far from fine, and going worse fast, and the darkness in front of them and behind them just seemed to stretch on and on.

 

At least Riku had not heard anything that he wasn’t supposed to anymore. It was the last thing he needed in this situation.

 

Sora sniffed again, lowering the key for a moment so he could rub his face on his arm without letting go of Riku’s hand, and then raised it back again.

 

Riku saw it the same exact time as Sora did.

 

A face, pale and rigid, right in front of them.

 

The scream got stuck in Riku’s throat from the sheer surprise, and because Sora yelped and jumped backwards and landed on Riku, who had to grab his arms around Sora to steady both of them so they wouldn’t both fall down.

 

The face didn’t move. It was just there, white porcelain skin shining in the light from the darkness, eyes closed, long and dark lashes forming shadows on the round cheeks.

 

Riku ignored the hammering of his heart as the face still didn’t move, eyes staying shut and the long shadows of the lashes not fluttering.

Sora relaxed in his arms as well, if only marginally.

 

“Is it…” Sora hesitated.

“…dead?”

 

Riku let go of him slowly, pushing Sora partially behind him as he took one, tentative step forward.

 

Still no movement.

 

Sora took a step closer as well, bringing the key closer to the face. It was then when Riku noticed the rest of the body as well, the long, tube like neck that extended from the back of the face, the skeleton arms that were attached to white spheres where the shoulders should’ve been, and the rest of the body that reminded him of a carcass of a mannequin.

 

It was not a human. That only made Riku feel a little better.

 

Sora came to stand next to him.

 

“It looks like a doll”, he said quietly.

“Of some sorts, at least.”

 

“Kinda”, Riku said. There was something hauntingly familiar in the white, round head that looked like a bar skull, but just a little too white and perfectly shaped to be real.

“I think…I think this is what James was.”

 

It had to be. It was way too similar. Almost like a human, one that could easily pass as one with skin and all that plastered on top of the skeleton, but exposed when stripped down from them.

 

“Oh”, Sora said. He was silent for a long moment after that, just staring at the doll in front of them.

“Maybe…I don’t know.”

 

He tilted his head, his eyebrows coming together, and Riku was waiting for him to say something else about that, but then Sora frowned even harder.

 

“…why is it on the ceiling like that?” he asked.

 

He lifted the key, and Riku understood immediately what he meant. The doll was hanging from the ceiling, its hands and feet pressed against it, stuck in there like a spider.

 

That was when Riku was even more relieved for the fact that it was not a human. The dolls legs were bend in a very unnatural way, so the soles of its feet could be against ceiling as well, and just thinking of his own ankles being forced in a position like that made Riku feel sick.

 

“Just…” Riku grabbed Sora’s hand again.

“Let’s go.”

 

He dragged Sora around the dolls, pressing as close as the walls he possibly could, and ushered Sora forward as fast as he could with Sora’s constant wheezing while moving.

 

Riku had never found dolls to be scary in horror movies before, but that still didn’t mean he wanted to meet one like that in the real life, either. There was a firm line in between what was scary in fiction and in reality, and Riku was quickly realising that he did not want the non-scary ones from the first category to be in the second.

 

Sora seemed to be just as uncomfortable about the doll as Riku was, because despite him breathing a little difficult, he kept the pace without whining, and Riku could feel him cribbing his hand a lot tighter than he had before.

Sora kept his eyes strictly forward, but Riku couldn’t help himself. He kept glancing over his shoulder, watching as the white face of the doll started fading back into the darkness as the light got further away from it.

 

Maybe it was the darkness. Riku knew that human eyes started to see things that weren’t there in the dark, moulding even the most familiar everyday things into something entirely else.

 

But right before the pale outline of the face got swallowed by the darkness yet again, Riku could have sworn it was looking at them.

 

 

                                                                                                                  ⋆

 

 

After that, Riku really didn’t want to talk.

 

The silence took turn from highly uncomfortable to absolutely torturing. Riku really wasn’t afraid of dark, closed places nor dolls, but he still thought that dark and closed places were not great once you were in them yourself, and that having a doll that he knew could be up moving, walking and doing things in general was in that dark and closed place with you was very, very far from ideal situation.

 

Sora’s coughs were getting harder again, and each one that left his mouth felt like another mark of doom for Riku. They were in a dark place with no other option than to go forward, with something else now definitely behind them in the dark (even if the doll wasn’t moving, it was still _there_ ) and Sora was acting like there was something toxic in the air that ragged his lungs with every breath he took.

Riku wouldn’t have been surprised if that was actually the case. The smell Sora had mentioned before and Riku had only been faintly able to detect was now definitely there, burning Riku’s nose and forcing him to breathe in through his mouth.

 

That, combined with the tacky feeling in his throat made Riku want to cough too, but every time he felt one crawling up his throat he clamped his mouth shut until it passed. One of them constantly making loud noises was enough.

 

Riku had not been able to count how long they’d been walking, and the darkness was making the corridor feeling endless. There was a light sheen of cold sweat forming on his forehead as well, and Riku was just about to wipe it on his sleeve when Sora suddenly stopped.

 

“What?” Riku whispered, not daring to speak louder than that.

 

“There’s something ahead”, Sora whispered back. Riku peered over his shoulder, past the edge of the light.

 

The key was now pulsing, emitting more and brighter light than before, and in the distance Riku could see on outline of something.

 

But much closer, just few steps ahead, he saw another door.

 

It was more like a door-shaped hole on the wall, again, but it meant that the corridor was finally coming to an end. Sora was just still standing still, and as Riku looked down at his face, he could see that Sora had crunched up his nose in disgust.

 

“The smell is coming from there”, he said, gagging lightly as he breathed in with his nose.

 

Riku sniffed the air carefully. He crunched his nose as well when the smell hit his nose stronger than before, but thankfully he was able to hold in the gag.

 

“It’s still the only way to go”, he pointed out. Sora made a reluctant noise, so Riku gave his hand a squeeze.

“C’mon. We’re getting somewhere.”

 

It was a bit outputting when he was the one who now had to drag Sora forward, when Sora had been the one to run off by himself in the first place. Sora followed him, lighting up the way even he was more trudging than walking.

 

The thing which outlines Riku had seen from the distance was now in front of them, and as the light hit it, Riku realised that it was a pipe. A huge one, taller than Riku was, laying on the floor with its other end still going up towards the ceiling as it had crashed down only partially.

 

Sora seemed to get a little bit more alert at the sight, as he started to turn the light to other directions too. They were no longer in the corridor, but in a bigger room which walls Riku could not see, even though the light the key was giving them was a lot brighter than before. There were other rubble laying around them as well, more pipes and pieces of rocks and large chunks of something that looked like glass, in which point Riku got more than worried about their bare feet.

 

“Watch your step”, he said to Sora, when he suddenly felt something burning his foot.

 

Riku yelped and quickly stepped backwards. His right foot was tingling and aching, like he had rubbed it on gym floor and got his skin burned raw from that.

 

“What is it?” Sora was definitely more alert as he came closer and illuminated the floor in front of Riku.

 

Riku almost didn’t see it first, but then the light shined from the better angle, and he saw the puddle of something right there where he had just put his foot. At first it looked like water, but at the further look it was more thick and completely black, looking a lot more like stiff oil spilled on the floor.

 

“What is that?” Sora asked, leaning a bit closer to the puddle, but backing off fast.

“Ughhhhh, that’s what smells in here!”

 

He held his nose shut, gagging again, and very carefully, Riku crouched down closer to the puddle as well.

 

Sora was right. The oil-like substance outright _reeked_ of the mixture of burning and rotting, and this time he did gag slightly as well.

 

“Okay, watch out for glass and for that”, Riku said, lifting his foot to look at the skin.

 

It actually did look like the burns he had gotten as a kid from the gym floors, aching and red but not like a real burn and faster to heal. It stung only a little to step on it, so it wasn’t too bad, but Riku did not want to step on the substance for a second time.

 

“Okay”, Sora said, looking at the puddle in disgust.

“But what is that?”

 

“I don’t know”, Riku said.

“But it’s unpleasant and that’s enough reason to avoid it.”

 

They continued to walk, now watching really closely where they were going. Riku could see more puddles of the substance on the floor, and while they definitely avoided the bigger ones, there were most likely small splashes of it as well, as his feet continued to burn nevertheless. And so did Sora’s, judging from the hisses and grunts coming from his direction.

 

Riku really tried to get a good look of the room they were in, while watching the floor. He couldn’t see the walls, but he was sure that the room was definitely a lot bigger than the one under the cliff, judging from the size of the rubble on the floor and from the distance they had to walk to even reach the first large pipe Riku had seen from far away.

 

“What the hell is this place?” he murmured under his breath, trying not to cough too as they stopped so Sora could lean on him while having another fit.

 

“I don’t know”, Sora rasped.

“But it feels familiar…”

 

The key shone more brightly when Sora moved it to the right, so they changed their direction slightly. They still came across the pipe on the floor, as the part Riku could see in their light was at least fifty feet long, probably even longer, as the darkness made it hard to estimate it accurately.

Riku climbed on the pipe first, giving Sora his hand so he could help him up as well. The pipe was wide enough for them to stand on it, and Riku tried to look into the darkness ahead of them while Sora searched for his balance.

 

“I can’t make up how big this place is”, Riku said.

“Does the key tell you where to go from here?”

 

“Hold on”, Sora sucked in a couple of breaths, even though breathing clearly disgusted him at the moment, and he lifted the key.

 

Riku felt like his heart was beating out from his chest.

 

There were more of the dolls. Tens of what Riku could see clearly, probably a lot more outside of the range of the light. They were laying on the floor, limbs scattered and heads twisted in every direction, empty glass eyes staring right at them.

 

Sora squeezed his hand _hard,_ not daring to move otherwise. It took them almost ten whole seconds to come to the blissful conclusion that none of the dolls were moving.

 

“Thank god”, Sora gasped.

“They looked like actual skeletons at first.”

 

Ill-proportioned and shiny skeletons, Riku added in his mind.

 

“Where does the key point?” he asked.

 

Sora moved the key from left to right, and the light still shone brighter towards right.

 

Riku hopped down first, extending his arms to Sora, who jumped to them and let Riku help him down. Riku knew that Sora could’ve handled such a jump by himself, but he looked so pale and tired in the key’s light that Riku did not trust Sora’s coordination enough at that point. And besides, Sora was letting him help without arguing back anyway.

 

Thankfully the key guided them slightly away from the dolls scattered on the floor, but it didn’t erase Riku’s uneasiness that much. Now he was trying to watch his steps while feeling the strongest urge ever to constantly look over his shoulder, towards the still white figures.

 

They didn’t get to walk very long, though, when the key started to pulse almost blindingly, stopping them to their tracks.

 

Riku squinted, putting his hand over his eyes to shield them from the light, trying to see what was in front of them.

 

At first, he thought it was a window of some sorts, large and made of dark, cracked glass, but then he saw a table in front of it, that looked way too familiar.

It was the same kind of table that had been in the room under the cliff. Riku could see the same kinds of markings and the shining metal part of the keyhole in the middle of it, and the cables coming from the table and disappearing behind the glass.

 

It was not a window. It was a monitor.

 

Sora seemed to have realised the same thing, as he let go of Riku’s hand and walked closer to the table, hesitating for a few seconds before putting the key into the keyhole.

 

The table lightened up instantly. Light shot from the keyhole to the markings, then to the cables and shooting up to the monitor.

For a brief moment nothing happened, and Riku doubted that the monitor, with all of the cracks and dents in it, would even work anymore, when the it started to crackle loudly, zapping and flashing on and off.

 

Well, it worked, but not properly.

 

“…what is that?” Riku moved closer to Sora, who was leaning on the table, looking up at the monitor as well. Most of the time the monitor turned on for such a short time that Riku had not been able to make out what it was showing, but couple of times it stayed on for long enough for him to see quick flashes of what looked like letters. One’s that Riku couldn’t understand.

 

Sora frowned.

 

“I’m not sure”, he said.

“It does look familiar, though, so I’m trying to…”

 

He stopped talking to cough again, leaning more heavily against the table. Riku was pretty sure that him rubbing Sora’s back was not helping at all, but hopefully it would still feel comforting.

 

“…I’m trying to read it”, Sora wheezed, lifting his head to read the flashing text.

“It’s in the old language, so I don’t really know it, apart from- “

 

There was a loud whirring noise, like something was charging up, and then light started flowing back from the monitor to the cables, pulsing from the markings towards the key.

 

Sora stopped his sentence again. He looked back and forth from the key to the monitor, confusion written all over his face.

 

“…what is it doing now?” Riku asked carefully.

 

“I don’t know”, Sora answered.

“I can barely use a modern computer, I know just as much as you, but…”

 

“But?” Riku squeezed Sora’s shoulder.

 

“…it’s like it’s downloading something”, Sora said.

“I think? I’m not sure, but- “

 

Sora’s hands shot up to grab his head as his face twisted, and he groaned, almost collapsing to the floor if Riku had not caught him in time.

 

“Sora?” Riku pulled him closer.

“Sora!”

 

Sora slowly lifted his head from his hands.

 

“I’m okay”, he said, trying to smile at Riku like he had just remembered he was supposed to, but after everything that had happened already, Riku was not buying it in the slightest.

 

“What happened?” he demanded, reluctantly letting Sora go when he pried away from Riku’s hold.

 

“Just another vision”, Sora answered, clearly trying to sound as nonchalant as he could make himself.

“It’s data. I think.”

 

“Data?” Riku asked. Once they’d got out of there, he would make Sora talk.

“Data of what?”

 

“I’m not sure”, Sora said.

“But I think it’s what the Guardian has left here. Or something he thought it was important, since he left us the coordinates to this place.”

 

“What do you mean?” Riku asked.

“What coordinates?”

 

Over the whirring sound, Riku was suddenly sure he heard something. Like clatter. Chills ran down his back and he turned to look, but everything was still in the darkness behind them.

 

The light was fading, and the monitor turned on for even less than before, until it shut down with a zap so loud it almost sounded like gunshot in Riku’s ears.

 

Sora flashed him a tired, apologetic grin.

 

“I’ll tell you once we get out of here”, he said, and Riku really didn’t like the fact that he was now being the impatient one, while Sora was withdrawing from him. It was unsettling.

 

“Fine”, he huffed, because Riku really didn’t want to be in there for any longer than necessary.

“Will the key still show us the way out?”

 

“I really hope so”, Sora said, reaching his hand to take the key out from the keyhole.

 

As the monitor had stopped making noise, the silence in the room was again heavy on top of them. Riku heard the drip before he saw it.

 

Then suddenly Sora yelped and yanked his hand back.

 

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow _owww!”_ Sora was shaking his hand violently, then rubbing it on the front of his shirt.

 

“What’s wrong?” Riku outright surged forward, grabbing Sora’s hand to himself.

 

It was hard to see, with the only light coming from the key still inside the keyhole, but Riku could still see the remains of the black, oily substance on Sora’s skin, and the crimson, fresh burn on the back of his hand.

 

This time, Riku really heard the clattering noise. It sounded like metal hitting together and scraping against itself coming from right on top of them, and Riku hurried to yank the key out of the keyhole.

 

It thankfully still glowed, despite it being Riku and not Sora who was holding it, and the light was just enough to barely reach the ceiling of the room.

 

And the numerous eyes from the place faces looking down at them as the dolls swarmed on top of their heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we are again!
> 
> Two funerals, sickness in family, university and work and stress in general were what my fall was consisted of. I was suffering from both huge writer's block for this and also not having enough time to write in general, so this got put back a lot. Hopefully next year will be easier on me, so I'll have more time for things I enjoy as well, like writing.
> 
> Also, I started a another fic a while back which I will be updating too when I get chapters done. If you haven't checked it yet, go ahead and see if you like it as well! 
> 
> Again, thank you for all of you for reading this, and happy new year!


	14. Chapter 14

Riku had never been particularly scared of dark, closed places. He had never been, even more in particular, never scared of dolls.

 

And he had never, ever, even considered of there being a possibility that those two things would ever come up even in the same sentence.

 

Even less had he ever even imagined them coming up together in real life and not in a horror film.

 

The pale faces looked down on them, faintly glinting, glassy eyes never blinking, moving like a hive of gleaming insects making a harsh clatter instead of buzzing.

 

Then the first one of them leapt off of the ceiling and landed on the wall like a robotic spider, and that was when Riku’s body started moving again.

 

He grabbed Sora’s arm, hard.

 

“Run!”

 

The clatter of metal turned in to a loud choir of clanking as all the other dolls started moving too, jumping around on the ceiling and moving down to the walls. All of the noises of multiple limbs hitting hard surfaces echoed around the room and blended in together to a maddening mess, engulfing all other possible sounds, including Riku’s almost panicked breathing.

 

It also drowned whatever Sora might’ve said. Riku could feel him stumbling, and he did feel bad for just yanking him back up without slowing down. But they had no time for slowing down.

 

The noise was everywhere. Riku wasn’t sure in what direction it even came from. Where the dolls behind them, on top of them, crawling up on the walls and ready to leap?

The key almost slipped out from Riku’s grasp, solely because of how much his palms were sweating, and Riku squeezed it so hard in his hand that the smoothed edges of the metal stung his skin. The key still shone, but only with a fraction of what it had before, and Riku could only see just a little ahead of him in the vast darkness of the room.

 

He didn’t know where to go. His body was moving on its own, making his legs run as fast as he could with dragging Sora with him and the floor burning his skin, but that was all he could at that moment. Run.

 

Air escaped from his lungs as Sora collided to his side with force, sending him almost flying of the course. Riku saw a flash of movement from the corner of his eye, a white skeletal hand swiping through the air right on his left, and he almost let out a scream.

The stumbling and the sheer fright had probably made him slow down, because now it was Sora who was gripping his hand and dragging him along. He still looked out of breath and was clearly struggling to breathe and stay steady, but on the light the key gave to them, Riku could see that his eyes were hard.

 

Hard and white fingertips brushed at Riku’s shoulder, burning, trying to get a hold, and this time Riku could only partially supress the scream that wanted to leave his throat. Sora surged, tugging Riku’s hand hard, and the fingers slipped, leaving searing trails on Riku’s neck. He almost tripped over because of the change of course, but now it was Sora who didn’t slow down.

 

Then they came up to a wall.

 

Sora still didn’t slow down. He ran straight to the wall, and slammed his palm hard against it. Riku didn’t even get to comprehending what he was doing, when the wall opened like a sliding door, and Sora outright pushed him forwards.

This time Riku did lose his balance, and he fell down to the floor right on his elbows, breaking the fall right on time before he’d bust his chin open. Sora collided to his feet and stumbled against the wall.

 

Then there was a loud thump and even louder bang as if something had rammed against the wall, and Riku scrambled up, only to almost fall down again when his head hit the ceiling so hard his teeth hurt. The horrible sound of clanking had now dulled down to scraping of metal and distant banging, making Riku very aware of how loud he really was breathing.

 

The fingers that touched his shoulder this time were warm and soft and already familiar, but Riku still jumped and only managed to swallow the scream back down at the last second.

 

“Just me”, Sora panted, leaning against Riku’s side. He coughed again, wiping his face to the crook of his arm.

 

Riku turned to look over his shoulder. The wall behind them had closed again, leaving them in a narrow, dark corridor. The scraping and banging still continued from the other side, reminding Riku too much of all of the zombie movies he had watched with Maya in the middle of the night without permission.

 

The key had finally slipped from Riku’s hand, and slid a couple of feet away from him. Sora took as an opportunity to pick it up to himself again, after a couple more of coughs and deep breaths.

 

“Shoot”, he muttered, trying to shine the light further inside of the corridor, but the glow only lightened up the area few feet ahead of them.

“Of course this thing would run out of batteries now…”

 

“What even is this?” Riku asked. The corridor was too small for it to be an actual passageway, and he could swear that he had not seen any kind of door on the wall on the other side.

 

“It’s a vent!” Sora grinned, and Riku allowed himself a little relief because of it, since Sora still looked like he was halfway in ready to collapse.

“Kinda, it’s one of those things you would transfer supplies through from one place to another!”

 

Well, that wasn’t really what Riku would’ve expected it to be, but Sora sounded sure about it.

 

“How’d you know it was here?” he asked.

“I didn’t see a door or anything.”

 

Of course he had been in total panic at that point and it had been dark, so Riku could’ve easily just missed it, but the grin on Sora’s face fell in the same pace his eyes widened in clear confusion.

 

“Uh”, Sora said, blinking.

“I don’t- “

 

“Look, look, it’s fine”, Riku patted him on the shoulder. Last thing he wanted right now was to trigger something in Sora’s brain and for him to have another head ache attack.

“If this is meant for transferring stuff around, it means it leads somewhere.”

 

Sora had said so instinctively, which most likely meant that he was right. Riku still wasn’t at all thrilled about the idea of someone else’s thoughts and memories being inside of Sora’s head, but he had to be thankful for them at that moment. He’d just have to keep calm and think of what he’d say not to mess things up more, which would possibly lead into Sora’s mind crashing down.

Staying calm was easier said than done, with the constant, persistent scratching and banging coming from behind his back. Now that he had once thought about zombies, it was impossible to get the image off of his mind.

 

_They are not zombies. They are just human-sized dolls or whatever. Puppets that are a size of a human and are currently trying to get to you and probably rip your head off._

 

Yeah, that was not any better than zombies. Riku hoped it was too dark for Sora to see him shiver.

 

“Yeah, I think so”, Sora said, the confusion thankfully fading away, even if it was only because of the coughing fit that made him crunch his face. Riku moved his hand from Sora’s shoulder to his back, rubbing up and down and brushing the hair on his neck up.

 

There was a loud bang, and Riku almost hit his head against the ceiling again as he turned around.

The door of the vent had dented inwards, the scratching growing louder.

 

“Hopefully it does”, Riku breathed, and gripped Sora’s hand back as he started to lead them deeper into the vents.

 

                                                                                                               ⋆

 

Riku would’ve thought, that at that point, he would’ve been more than used to in crouching through dark, cramped spaces.

 

But no, he absolutely was not. Out of everything he had experienced so far, this was definitely the worst. You could still talk yourself out of the feeling that there was something in the dark with you, but there was nothing you could do when there actually _was_ something right on your heels.

 

The scratching and banging echoed through the vent, and even if they were more distant now, Riku’s skin had gotten permanently in goose bumps.

Riku just hoped that wherever the other end of the vent was, it was not blocked by another horde of murderous dolls. Riku swallowed. _No, don’t go in there, brain, please._

 

 

Sora tugged his hand a little to get his attention, and Riku peered over Sora’s shoulder. The vent split in two different directions, both equally dark, and Riku couldn’t see anything in neither of them.

 

“Which way?” Riku asked, clearing his throat a little. His throat was starting to itch more, and his chest was feeling a little cramped, and Riku knew the feeling very well from having bronchitis multiple times when he was younger. Islander kid really didn’t get used to the colder and rainier climate that easily.

 

Sora looked left, then right, trying to light the vents more with no avail.

 

“Left”, he said then.

“I think that’s a good direction. Maybe.”

 

He cleared his throat too, with a lot wetter sound than Riku. Riku glanced over his shoulder to the vent they had just came from. He could still hear the banging, the scratching having now faded into the distance. At least there wasn’t a horde of dolls crawling right towards them just yet.

That didn’t mean they could afford to linger too much. The door clearly wasn’t going to hold the dolls forever.

 

“Okay”, he said.

“Left is good.”

 

It would at least lead them to somewhere, and that was what Riku was looking for the most, if he was being completely honest. If he hadn’t been claustrophobic before, Riku seriously doubted that he would stay like that for much longer.  

 

He didn’t get to dwell in that thought for long, though, as only few seconds later Sora swayed, collapsing against the wall and sliding down. His hand slipped from Riku’s as he fell on his hands and knees, coughs going through his body with a force.

 

“Sora!” Riku dropped down, grabbing Sora’s shoulders as he coughed and choked on air.

“Hold on, try to take deep breaths, okay?”

 

Sora honestly seemed like he was trying to follow Riku’s words, but every breath in sent him right back to the couching fit, which had now started to sound like he was actually choking on something, with his breath coming out in short rattles.

Riku did the only thing he could come up with at that moment, and he slammed his palm against the middle of Sora’s shoulder blades. He might’ve used a little bit more force than he’d meant to, because Sora jerked roughly from it, his arms almost giving in from keeping him up.

 

And then he threw up.

 

Okay, it was not actually throwing up. It sounded a lot more like he had gotten water in his lungs and he was now hacking it up and out. Something splashed on the floor and Sora spit frantically. But then Riku heard him drew in a huge, deep gulp of air. It was followed by few more coughs, but they were significantly dryer than the ones before it.

 

“Owwww”, Sora whined, letting his head fall between his arms. It only stayed there for exactly two seconds, though, before Sora snapped his head back.

“Ewww, gross.”

 

He backed away a bit, rising up from his hands, giving Riku a clear view to a puddle of black, thick liquid on the floor that reeked strongly like burning plastic and something rotting.

 

Riku knew exactly what it was, and it didn’t make any sense. For what he had seen, Sora had _definitely_ not swallowed any of the black liquid, which meant that he definitely shouldn’t be throwing up puddles of it.

 

Or maybe…Riku sniffed the air. The smell was there, very pungently, and the air was still just as heavy and unpleasant on Riku’s skin as it had been back in the hallway.

 

Oh, no. For a biology major, he was an idiot.

 

“Sora”, Riku grabbed his arm again.

“Don’t breathe.”

 

Okay, that was not exactly what he had meant to say, and Sora looked at him like he had lost his mind.

 

“What?” he asked.

 

“No, I mean, that’s the problem”, Riku shook his head.

“The air is toxic.”

 

Or at least the black, thick substance all over the place was toxic. It had burned their skin and smelled just like some kind of industrial waste that had been described to Riku in different classes over and over again. Riku didn’t know what it was, exactly, but it was highly irritating, and that added to the growing need to cough were signs so clear that Riku was outright embarrassed he hadn’t realised it before.

 

The whole place was a landfill full of hazardous waste, and they had walked right in barefooted and without any kind of protection at all.

 

All the information of what do to when in contact of dangerous substances flashed through Riku’s mind. Avoid skin contact and direct contact with eyes, and do not breathe in dusts, mists or vapours. They had already failed all of those rules.

 

Sora looked at him for couple of seconds with a puzzled expression, but then realisation dawned on his face. He yelped, and slammed his hands on his face.

 

“What am I supposed to do then?” he asked, voice muffled from behind his hands.

“Do I hold my breath?”

 

“I don’t know, I don’t think it- don’t rub your hands on your face!” Riku wrapped his fingers around Sora’s wrists and pried them down.

“You have touched walls and floors and pretty much everything in here!”

 

So had Riku, but he wasn’t couching up rotten oil from his lungs. His skin tingled like he had been slightly sunburnt and his throat was coarse, but most of the cold sweat on his skin was because of anxiety-filled thoughts, not because he was physically sick.

Riku glanced down on Sora’s hands. The burn on the back of his hand was screaming red after some of the black liquid had dripped on his hand. Riku had straight up stepped in a puddle of it, and his foot had only gotten some patches of slightly broken skin.

 

For some reason, Sora was way more sensitive to the effects of the substance than Riku was, and there was only one major difference between them that Riku could come up with. Whatever the substance was, it seemed to harm merpeople way worse.

 

Sora opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was that he was going to say was drowned by a loud bang coming from behind their backs.

 

Riku pulled Sora up and ushered him forward.

 

“We’ll have to come up with a solution a little bit later”, he said.

“Let’s go.”

 

Sora seemed to be doing a little better as they continued moving, his lungs being probably a bit lighter now that he had gotten the stuff out of there, but he still looked exactly like someone who had just puked literal oil out of his lungs. Pale and very sweaty.

 

They did couple of more turns. One more to the left, and then one to the right (“It just feels right to turn right, you know?” Sora had said) and, thank god, they had not heard any more loud bangs after the last one. Or crawling noises either. Apparently, the door was holding up better than Riku had thought it would.

 

“I think we should be there soon”, Sora muttered under his breath. He had tried to pull his shirt up to cover his face, but it wouldn’t stay there for longer than three seconds, so he had quickly given up on using it as a shield from the toxins (and after Riku had pointed out that Sora had already been rubbing his shirt all over everything, too, so it wouldn’t do much anyway). He seemed to be trying to hold is breath for as long as he could, only taking in few breaths at the time, but Riku doubted that it would actually help anymore, after all the inhaling Sora had already done. He could only hope that because Sora still seemed alert enough, the substance wasn’t immediately fatal to his body.

 

“Where?” Riku asked. Sora hadn’t said much about his choices of where to turn, other than it “felt right”. Riku tried his best to be trusting, and not argue with Sora any more than necessary in their current situation.

 

His question made Sora pause for a moment, his brow furrowing.

 

“I don’t know”, he said, after some silence.

“Somewhere where we should be going?”

 

Yeah, it really didn’t seem like Sora had any idea of where he was actually going and why. He opened his mouth to say something else, but he was, yet again, cut off by another noise.

 

Not a bang this time. But sharp, echoing footsteps.

 

No, there were four clanks, Riku realised. Like something with four legs was moving nearby.

 

Riku saw the shadow appear behind them, crawling slowly forwards. Slowly, like an animal scouting its surroundings, looking for a prey.

 

Sora let out a gasp, and the shadow stopped. Riku saw the round, human-shaped head turn slightly from side to side, listening.

 

It was close enough that Riku could see the shadow, which meant, for all that made sense to him, that the doll should’ve been seeing them too. And it clearly was heading for their direction, and Riku couldn’t fathom why it hadn’t started to run already.

 

Drop of sweat ran down his neck. Riku tried to think. There was a doll in the vents with them. Which meant that either the door back in the monitor room had broken, or that there was other way for them to get in. Both of those were bad options.

 

The creature stayed put. Sora leaned a little bit from behind Riku, and the key lighted the vent a little bit more, so Riku could see the pale outline of the doll on the ceiling of the vent, hanging there like a spider.

 

The doll snapped its head, like it had sensed something, and Sora leaned back behind Riku immediately, and Riku didn’t know if seeing the doll was better or worse than not seeing it.

The doll crawled closer, now a little faster, but still not jumping at them and attacking. Riku tried to make his legs to move. There was still some distance in between them and the doll, and they could maybe, just maybe get away if they moved now, since the doll had clearly seen the light and knew where they were-

 

Riku tried to be as silent as he could as he turned around, and clamped his hands on top of Sora’s and the key. Darkness obscured the vent, and Riku had to remind himself that no, he was not afraid of dark, closed places.

 

“Riku?” Sora whispered, barely audible.

 

“Shh”, Riku whispered back, hoping that Sora would hear him with his voice so low.

“Quiet. Get down and don’t move.”

 

He tugged Sora’s hands a little as he moved to sit on his knees and hunched his head. He felt Sora move as well, quietly scooting closer to him until Riku felt his chest against his knuckles.

 

If he was wrong, they doll would notice them. But if he was right about this, the end result would’ve been the same anyway if they had just ran, so it was this or most likely a gruesome death. _Don’t think of that right now, brains, could you be good for once?_

 

The crawling had stopped again as the darkness had fallen, but now it was there again, back to the slow, excruciating pace. Riku gripped Sora’s hands harder as the doll moved closer, so close now that Riku could distinctively hear each press of each limb. Left leg, right hand, fingers tapping sharply at the ceiling, sending small clangs down the vent.

Logically, Riku knew that his heartbeat was only audible for himself, but he still couldn’t smother down the fear of the possibility that the doll would hear hammering.

 

It didn’t do much since they were already in darkness, but Riku pressed his eyes tightly shut as the next clank came right from on top of him. There was long pause between that and the next one, and Riku knew that the doll was listening. Riku held his breath.

 

Then the doll moved again, continuing its way past them. Left hand, right leg, right hand, left leg, fingers tapping. Riku couldn’t be sure of how far away the doll was, but at least it was not right on top of-

 

That was when Sora coughed.

 

It was a small, muffled cough that Sora had clearly been fighting against. It was more like a harrumph than a cough, if Riku was being completely honest, but it was still audible enough for both Riku and for the doll.

 

Riku’s whole body ran cold as he heard the doll stop. Sora’s hand went completely rigid beneath his as they both waited.

 

It was probably a much shorter time in reality than what it felt like, but then the doll started moving again, and Riku let his body slump as it continued its way away from them.

 

Sora relaxed too, sighing audibly as the doll’s footsteps grew distant enough that they couldn’t hear them anymore.

 

“I’m sorry”, Sora whispered.

“I tried to hold it in.”

 

“It’s fine”, Riku whispered back.

“It’s gone now.”

 

He removed his hands carefully from on top of Sora’s fist, and the vent lightened up again. Riku held his breath again in anticipation, but the steps weren’t coming back.

 

“It didn’t notice us”, Sora said, looking behind his back where the doll had disappeared.

 

“I don’t think they see very well”, Riku answered.

“I saw that it didn’t lunge at us immediately when we were still, but it clearly noticed the light.”

 

Thank god he had been right about that. It had been instinctive assumption his brain had made quickly by connecting all the knowledge he had about animal behaviour and horror film monsters. Maybe watching _Alien_ when he was twelve and secretly having nightmares about it for weeks finally had some purpose.

 

Sora looked down at the key.

 

“We should be careful, then”, he said, tugging the key further into his fist, so that it glowed through his fingers with less brightness.

“It went to the same direction where we’re supposed to go.”

 

Oh. Right.

 

“Fucking hell”, Riku hissed.

 

“Watch your profanity”, Sora said back immediately in a little too high-pitched voice, a little wobbly but smug enough smile pulling the corners of his mouths up.

 

Riku stared at him in stumped silence.

 

“Did you just…did you just quote a vine?” Riku asked.

 

“Yes”, Sora answered.

“Kairi made me watch compilations of them once when we were waiting for you. They’re funny.”

 

Riku didn’t know what he was supposed to say, but Sora was looking at him with what Riku could only guess was a hopeful look, so pulled his lips to a smile as well.

 

“Yeah, they’re pretty funny”, Riku said.

“Let’s go now, before more of them come.”

 

“Right”, Sora nodded.

“Follow me.”

 

They stumbled back on their feet. It was a little bit more difficult to walk without bumping to the walls with only some faint glow coming from Sora’s fist, but Riku wasn’t really keen on the idea of going any faster and bumping into something other than walls either.

 

The vent split up pretty soon again. Riku tried to listen if he could hear the doll in either of the directions, but it was completely silent in both of the vents. It might’ve been a good sign or a bad one, but Riku was too tired to care. Especially, when Sora turned to the right, and the vent ended almost immediately after the turn.

 

“I told you”, Sora said, flashing Riku a quick grin over his shoulder, as he pressed his hand against the door.

 

“I never really doubted you”, Riku answered.

“But do you know where this is?”

 

The door opened, and Sora squinted into the darkness on the other side.

 

“No”, he whispered.

“But I got a good feeling about this.”

 

Riku looked at the darkness too. It was quiet. He hoped it was a good sign.

 

“I hope you’re right”, he whispered back, and then followed Sora out of the vent.

 

                                                                                                                                  ⋆

 

 

Riku realised that the vents, with the thick, sealed doors that could hold off a horde of murderous dolls, were most likely the cleanest place in the whole place.

 

As soon as he stepped out of the vent to the new room, the rotten smell almost physically hit him with its strength, and even Riku, even though he had only had moderately mild reactions to it so far, felt like he wanted to puke.

 

If Sora had seemed better after hacking out of his lungs worth of the black substance earlier, it was gone now. He gagged and coughed loudly, and Riku moved just in time to grab him when he started to fall towards the floor.

 

“Small breaths”, Riku tried to come up with something as Sora retched and shook in his arms.

“Try to hold your breath, okay? Don’t breathe through your nose, so you don’t smell it.”

 

Not smelling the substance wouldn’t do much in the terms of how much of the toxin would get in Sora’s lungs, but it would maybe make it a little more tolerable for even a moment.

 

At least there weren’t any dolls in there with them. Sora was so loud that if anything was anywhere even near them, it would’ve heard it all. Riku didn’t know what it was that had made the dolls come to life in the first place, but the most important thing was that nothing was attacking them right away.

 

Riku pulled Sora upright, so he could position him against his chest, and he pried the key from Sora’s fist to himself. It did feel kinda like hitting yourself between the fingers with a knife with your eyes closed, but Riku let the key glow freely and lighten the room around them.

 

It was a lot smaller room than the with the monitor. Riku could actually see the ceiling properly this time, with it being only roughly 20 feet above them. It might’ve been white before, judging from the dispersed spots here and there, but it was mostly covered by what looked like a black layer of mould growing on it.

The floor wasn’t any better. It had been white, Riku could say for sure, because they were currently standing on a larger white spot, that honestly looked a lot like a dulled pool tile and even felt like it. There were other white spots on the floor as well, bigger then on the ceiling, but there was more of the black substance in between them than there was white.

 

That room had a lot more similar feeling to the one under the cliff than the room with the monitor had had. It was similarly bare of almost anything, but where in the room under the cliff there had been the table with the blue light, Riku could see a row of what looked like long, glass-doored lockers on the other side of the room.

 

Sora had finally stopped coughing, and he rested his damp forehead on the crook of Riku’s neck.

 

“What consequences there are for breathing in contaminated air?” he asked.

“Do I mutate in to a Godzilla or what?”

 

“Maybe only to a bigger whale or something”, Riku joked dryly, just to humour Sora.

“Maybe you’ll grow another tail.”

 

“Sweet”, Sora croaked.

“Double-speed.”

 

Riku glanced quickly at the walls. He couldn’t see any other doors in there, which meant the only way to get in or out of the room was through the vent.

 

Strange, to put it mildly. Concerning, if looked from their point of view.

 

“Sora”, he said.

“There’s no door.”

 

That got Sora to lift his face a little from Riku’s neck.

 

“There…isn’t?” he asked, sounding confused.

“Weird. I could’ve sworn that…”

 

He coughed again, and slumped back against Riku. Riku clenched his jaw, glancing over his shoulder at the vent. Should they just turn back and look for another route? Maybe Sora had been mistaken about where to go, and Riku wouldn’t blame him for it at all.

 

That was when Riku heard something.

 

Kinda. It wasn’t exactly a sound, just a fleeting feeling, like someone had whispered gently to his ear, but the words were too quiet to distinguish from one another. In the light of everything that had happened that day, hearing something in an almost empty room should’ve by all means made Riku jump out of his skin, which he almost did before recognizing the voice.

 

“Did you hear that?” Riku asked Sora, who lifted his head again.

“It’s the ocean.”

 

That got Sora more alert, if just slightly.

 

“Wait, really?” he asked, and then fell silent for a few seconds.

“It is! See, I knew it!”

 

His enthusiasm was short-lived, since Sora took a bigger gulp of breath while speaking. That sent him right back to a coughing fit. An angrier sounding one this time, and Riku managed to turn him around last second before Sora spat out some of the black substance again.

 

Riku looked across the room again. The ocean had sounded like it was far away from them, but there nevertheless, which gave Riku some reassurance in their situation.

 

“We should check the other side of the room”, Riku suggested.

“To see if there’s something in there that we can’t see from here.”

 

Granted, the other side of the room wasn’t that far away, so they should’ve seen if there was something in there, but the whisper of the ocean had given him a boost of confidence to his actions. Maybe there was a way out, and they wouldn’t die a horrible death by either suffocating or being mauled by dolls.

Could you please, _please_ , stop thinking about death at every given possibility? Riku snarled at his mind.

 

“Sure”, Sora sniffled.

“The voice is coming from there, anyway.”

 

Was it? Well, maybe it was because Sora was a full merman, that the was able to tell it more accurately than Riku was. Sora pushed himself up and was about to step forward, but Riku yanked him back quickly.

 

“Do you want to burn your feet off?” Riku pointed at the floor.

“Seriously, can you let me do things for you?”

 

“Can you let me do things for _you_?” Sora shot back, and if he hadn’t sounded like a pipe stuffed with wet leaves, it would’ve probably made Riku feel a tad bit bad. But it didn’t, not this time.

 

“Sure, once you let me help you to the other side”, Riku answered.

“I have human feet that do not melt instantly when in contact with this stuff, so just hold on for a minute.”

 

He didn’t give Sora an opportunity to bark something back. Riku wrapped his arms around Sora’s back and legs and hoisted him up, which was much, much with legs than it had been with the tail. For a second Sora looked like he was going to protest, but it was cut short by yet another couching fit, and Riku took it as opening to move swiftly.

 

The black substance still burned his feet. Riku bit the inside of his cheek so hard that he started to taste blood, and he relished every single step he could take on the white spots on the floor before plunging his feet back into the oily coating.

There was, thankfully, a spot big enough for him to put Sora near the lockers. Sora had been right; Riku could now hear the ocean better, though it was still extremely muffled to him, and he couldn’t make out any distinct words or even feelings from it. Either the ocean was still too far, or something was blocking its voice from reaching them.

 

“Riku, look, look”, Sora pointed on the floor.

“It’s a hatch.”

 

Riku moved the key to where Sora was pointing. The hatch was almost completely coated with the black substance all the way to its handle, that glistened only very dimly in the light.

 

Riku braced himself, before handing the key to Sora and bending down, grabbing the handle and yanking it open. It was heavy and felt like it was jammed, before flying open and slamming on to the floor.

 

“Ah, fuck, fuck”, Riku hissed, rubbing his hands on his pants, trying to get even some of the substance off of his skin. This time Sora did not nag about his vocabulary. He had crawled next to the hatch, and peered down to it.

 

“Hi”, Sora said, putting his hand to the hatch, with relief showing from his expression.

“Sorry, my skin might be a little nasty right now with this stuff all over it.”

 

Riku gave his hands a one final rub, before crouching next to Sora. He could see the dark surface of water moving in the glow of the key, and the whispering of the water reached him now immediately and loudly.

 

“We should be able to get out through here”, Sora said.

 

Those were absolutely the best words Riku had heard all day.

 

“With diving?” he asked, looking at the water.

“How long is the dive?”

 

Riku didn’t like the way of how Sora frowned.

 

“I don’t know”, he said, glancing at Riku hesitantly.

 

Sora already knew that Riku couldn’t hold his breath for much longer than normal humans. If the dive was just as long as the first one or longer, Riku wouldn’t be able to make it. And with how rattled Sora’s own breathing sounded, Riku doubted that he could get as much air in his lungs as he usually did.

 

Riku groaned, and stopped himself from rubbing his face just as he was about to pinch the bridge of his nose. No black toxic substances to the eyes, no. Not today.

So they had a way out. In theory. In reality, the dive could be anything from sixteen feet to two thousand feet, and Riku didn’t want to go in and find out it was the latter.

 

Never before had the presence of the ocean felt like an obstacle.

 

“Does the ocean know?” Riku asked. He and Sora both glanced back at the water, and Riku did hear it whispering, but he still couldn’t make out any words. It felt exactly like someone was talking in a foreign language really fast, and expected Riku to understand every word of it.

 

Riku frowned. That had not happened before. Ever since the ocean had decided to talk to him, Riku had been able to understand it at least to some degree every time.

 

Judging from the frown on Sora’s face Riku was not the only one of them experiencing that.

 

“I’m sorry”, he whined and cleared his throat.

“I…don’t understand.”

 

Yeah, something was clearly not right. If Sora couldn’t understand the ocean, then the problem was definitely not in Riku’s head.

 

“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault”, Riku tried to pat Sora on the shoulder, but pulled his hand back fast when Sora hissed to the touch. Right. Riku wiped his hands thoroughly to the hem of his shirt before standing up.

 

It was still quiet in the room, apart from them and the ocean talking. No dolls in sight, nor any telling clanks coming from anywhere. That was a good thing, at least. They had a more time to think of what to do.

 

It was still extremely strange to Riku that there was a room this big that didn’t have any doors in it, only a vent and a hatch that lead straight to the ocean. It didn’t seem convenient at all in any merits. The layout of the place was strange anyway as well. There were clearly other rooms besides this one an the one with the monitor, since the vents divided to different directions many times, but now that Riku thought back at it, there hadn’t been that much of actual things in the monitor room either. A lot of debris and glass, yes, but no distinctive objects.

Riku understood the need to the secrecy, but apart from secret entrances, shouldn’t the actual place make at least some sense in how it was designed? Riku couldn’t imagine that the merpeople liked crawling through narrow vents to get from one room to another.

 

“Should we check those?” Sora asked suddenly, pointing at the lockers.

“There’s nothing else besides them in here.”

 

Riku glanced at the lockers as well. Another weird thing about this whole place. Why move everything else out, but leave a row of lockers in otherwise an empty room? It was like the place was deliberately trying to mess with their heads by being strange.

 

The front glasses of the lockers were dim with black dust and blotches of the black substance, and Riku grimaced in advantage before wiping one of them with his hand.

 

He was still too much on an edge, because when the human-shaped object appeared from the other side of the glass, Riku yelped and jumped backwards. It took him another few seconds to realise that it was not a human, and it was not a doll, either.

It was a dark, sleek suit, with a mask positioned on top of it.

 

“Riku?” Sora sounded worried. He had pushed himself up from the floor, but swayed dangerously. He hadn’t had a coughing fit in a couple of minutes, but Riku could see that there were angry, uneven red patches growing on his cheeks, which couldn’t be any good.

 

“I’m fine, I just got startled”, Riku assured him quickly.

“Don’t move too much.”

 

There was a push down plate on the side of the locker, and the glass door let out a loud swish of air as it opened. Riku gave his hands a good rub on the upper front of his shirt, where he hopefully hadn’t touched too much before, before grabbing the mask.

It looked a lot like one of those masks Riku had seen back on the islands, used in traditional plays and ceremonies. Of course those ones were made of wood and had colourful paint on them, while this one was cool to the touch, clearly made of some sort metallic-feeling material. It was shaped in an oval, with round, dark lenses where the eyes were positioned, and another round piece attached on the lower part of the mask. The reason Riku had gotten startled in the first place where the other features on it. The nose, the arch of brows and cheeks were detailed in it very carefully, making it look eerily similar to the faces of the dolls.

 

Riku had meant to turn the mask around to inspect it more, but he ended up almost dropping it when the mask suddenly let out a small swish and the round piece turned around. There was a sharp click, and then the lenses flickered, lighting up with pale blue light.

Okay, calm down, you just accidentally turned it on or something. Riku grabbed the mask by its edges, careful not to touch anything else on it, and flipped it over.

 

The feeling of fresh air was almost immediate as Riku lifted to mask closer to his face. Riku looked at the dark suit again. Long sleeves and pant legs, gloves attached to it.

Riku had worn a wetsuit multiple times, and he knew what one looked like.

 

“Sora”, Riku took two long steps to get next to him.

“Put this on, now.”

 

Sora looked at Riku and then at the mask.

 

“What?” he asked, coughing in between his words.

“Why?”

 

“Just put it on”, Riku ushered, pretty much pushing the mask on Sora. Riku hadn’t seen any strips on the mask to attach it with, but it seemed to attach itself on Sora’s face as Riku let go of it.

 

Sora glared at him slightly through the lenses, but the glare was gone fast after he took in the first breath.

 

“What- “Sora lifted his hands on the mask, feeling it around.

“What is this?”

 

“It’s a diving mask”, Riku answered.

 

It was not exactly like the diving gear Riku had used on his diving classes, but it was similar enough in shape. Riku did not know what technology the mask had, as he didn’t see any oxygen tanks anywhere, but Sora was having fresh air pushed on his face, judging from the deep gulps of breath he was taking.

 

“Woah”, Sora sighed, letting out a big and deep sigh. The mask whirred, as Riku assumed it pushed out carbon dioxide from the sealed area.

“This thing is amazing! It doesn’t even have tanks it needs to be attached to!”

 

“Yeah, seems like it”, Riku said. He pushed open the next locker, but it was empty. So was the next one, and the rest of them only had the wetsuits left, masks gone.

“So, this is similar kind of exit as the one we used to get here?”

 

“I think so”, Sora answered.

“Though this one at least has an actual normal opening and not a secret door.”

 

It made the earlier point of the place’s layout being strange even stronger. The hatch on the floor was big, and much more modern and definitely not as hidden as the door back on the other end of the hallway. The tunnel in the cave had been so narrow, that Riku doubted that Sora could’ve fitted through it with his tail, so to Riku this looked more like an actual entrance.

But if this was an entrance, it made even less sense that there was no door in the room.

 

Riku reached his hand, and pinched the leg of the wetsuit in thought. It was made of something else than neoprene, the material feeling soft and much more like just a regular, thick fabric. It was probably very comfortable to wear, perhaps not clinking so much to the skin as a regular suit.

 

Riku’s hand stopped.

 

There were wetsuits and diving masks that generated oxygen in a place that belonged to the Merpeople. Even if the material of the suits were different, the shape was still the same. It was made for people with legs, not for a tail.

 

He was just about to question _why there were diving gear in a place that belonged to the Merpeople,_ when there was a clank.

 

All too familiar one, that Riku did not want to hear. He snapped his head around.

 

A pale face appeared to the vent. Another one appeared right next to it, and Riku could hear the clanks inside of the vent multiplying and coming closer.

 

“Sora”, Riku said.

“Go, now.”

 

The first doll snapped its head up, looking right across the room. It didn’t attack just yet, but Riku knew it had noticed them.

 

Sora looked down at the water, then at Riku.

 

“But- “he started, but then the doll jumped, landing in the middle of the room in one leap, and Riku didn’t ask twice.

 

Riku dashed, grabbing Sora by his arms, and he pushed him down to the hatch. The doll jumped again, skeletal fingers aimed right at Riku’s head just as the light disappeared under the water, and Riku jumped in too.

 

It was dark. Riku forced his eyes to stay open, so he could see something, but he had to move. There was no telling of the dive was, and going up to breathe wasn’t a safe option.

 

Riku jerked, just a little, when two round, light blue objects came closer to him. His eyes were starting to adjust to the underwater world as Sora swam in front of him, so Riku could see the outline of his body when Sora waved for Riku to follow him.

They were still clearly inside of a cave, which didn’t surprise Riku at all. For what he had understood, the whole place was located inside of a cave system, which might’ve been a very good idea at the time of the construction. If all the entrances were build underwater, humans wouldn’t wander to them that easily, at least during the time when proper diving gear didn’t exist.

 

It was a lot bigger cave than the one Riku had swam in to earlier today, which made it feel like even more like an actual entrance compared to the other. They swam downwards and even more downwards, and Riku was starting to get worried. His vision had gotten clearer now, and the walls of the cave loomed in a distance.

Honestly, Riku should’ve realised that the dive was a lot longer than the other one from the fact that the diving suits were located right next to the hatch, and all but one of the masks were gone. He could probably hold his breath for a little bit longer, but last time he had barely held it together before Sora had came in and rescued him.

 

Two to three minutes was the approximate time for human to hold their breath, Riku reminded himself. He had probably done a little more, so it was maybe at three to four minutes. What had it been now? Over a minute, closer to two, judging from the burn that had started to flare in his chest.

Riku almost collided to Sora, when he suddenly stopped swimming and turned around. Riku didn’t have time to really do anything as Sora grabbed his shoulder to keep himself anchored, took in a couple of deep breaths, and then pried to mask off of his face. He didn’t waste any time in pushing the mask on Riku.

 

It felt like a large suction cup had been attached on his face at first, but then the mask pushed the water out and the pressure lessened, and Riku felt the rush of air on his skin. He gasped and breathed in, the burn in his chest easing almost immediately.

 

Sora grabbed his hand and pulled him along with him as he continued swimming, and Riku gathered himself fast. Sora had better lungs than he did, usually, giving him more time to hold his breath, but there was still a limit to that, and Riku didn’t know how much of that black substance was still there to prevent the usual amount of oxygen from getting in.

 

The cave looked a lot different with the mask on. Riku felt like he was wearing one of those bulky Oculus rift-headsets that projected the tv and the game right to his face. He could see the walls now clearly, and the bottom of the cave beneath them.

 

Something flashed on the lenses. An arrow had appeared in the upper right corner, and it pointed downwards, with strange symbols next to them, changing rapidly as they swam.

Numbers, maybe? The arrow changed the direction, tilting to point straight forward just as Riku noticed the hole on the wall.

 

The hole turned in to a tunnel, wide enough for both of them to swim side by side at first, but soon it turned straight upwards and became narrower, so Riku moved to swim behind Sora. The symbols next to the arrow were still changing and Riku hoped that he’d understood what they meant. It would’ve told him how long they still had to swim. He tried to count seconds and then minutes as the tunnel still went on. One minute, two, three. Should he give the mask back to Sora, so he could refill his lungs again?

 

One more minute. He should really give the mask back to Sora. They could switch again when Riku needed it.

 

Then the tunnel suddenly ended.

There was a stone wall in front of them, perfectly round and flat and even, so even that Riku could immediately tell that it was not natural. The keyhole in the middle of it confirmed his thoughts, and the key slid into the keyhole easily.

The stone slid off of their way and the tunnel was all of a sudden full of bright sunlight coming from above. Sora kicked himself more speed and Riku followed right behind him.

 

The wind had never felt so good. Riku let himself savour the feeling of cool, fresh air hitting his wet skin, and he pried the mask off in order to feel it completely.

 

Sora gasped and coughed next to him, drawing in the longest breath Riku had ever seen, before turning to look at Riku, huge grin plastered on his face.

 

“We made it!” he laughed, and Riku laughed too, not caring that he almost swallowed ocean water when a little bigger wave hit him to the face.

 

Riku could see the shore glistening in the rays of the setting sun. It was maybe a thousand feet distance, maybe a little less than that, and Riku could see some of the beachgoers still roaming around the sand.

 

“Let’s go back”, Sora said.

“I’m hungry.”

 

Riku couldn’t help but laugh again.

 

“Of course you are”, he said.

“We better get our things back first, and hope that the ocean has not took our phones. I’m pretty sure Kairi has alerted the police force of the whole country after us by now.”

 

Sora’s grin fell, and he grimaced.

 

“Better not leave her waiting for any longer, then”, he said, sounding like a man who knew he was going towards his doom, and Riku could relate to that easily.

“Do you remember where we left them?”

 

                                                                                                                     ⋆

 

The ocean had not taken their phones. It had made their shoes a little wet, but Riku was sure that he could live with it. The cashier in the Burger King near the beach looked like she couldn’t, but she still let them stay in the restaurant as Riku ordered what he could with the money he had. Sora wolfed down the fries in a second, and gulped down two mugs of soda just as fast.

 

Riku drank his own cup first before moving a little bit to the side to call Kairi. He had grimaced just like Sora after seeing all the messages and missed calls, but this couldn’t wait for any longer.

 

Riku didn’t get a lot of what Kairi was saying. She was in fact more yelling than talking, and Riku was pretty sure that she was crying too. A knot tied itself in to Riku’s throat. He hated when other people cried, and he especially didn’t like it when Kairi cried.

 

“I’m sorry”, Riku said, when Kairi took a longer pause.

“We’re okay.”

 

“You better be, or I’m kicking your heads off!” Kairi shrieked, before sniffling loudly.

“Where are you?”

 

Her voice was softer now, though Riku didn’t know if it was just because her throat hurt from the screaming she had just done.

 

“In the local Burger King”, Riku answered.

“Sora said he was hungry.”

 

“Do you know the address?” Kairi asked.

“I’m calling you a taxi.”

 

“What? No, Kairi, we’re taking the- “

 

“I’m calling you a taxi”, Kairi cut him off.

“What’s the address? Is it the one more close to the beach?”

 

“Yes, it is, but Kairi, seriously, you are not calling us a taxi.”

 

“Yes, I am, and I don’t care how much it costs, so don’t try to argue with me. I want you right to my doorstep.”

 

Riku sighed. He should argue with Kairi. He really should.

But he was tired. Now that the adrenaline had come down, Riku’s whole body ached, both from the injuries and from exhaustion. He glanced back at Sora, who was sitting at the table. His arms and legs were full of angry red spots and he was still paler than usual, and just like Riku, he looked like he was pretty much ready to drop.

 

“Okay”, Riku said.

“But I’m not going to be the one who explains the bill to your parents, is that clear?”

 

“Whatever you say”, Kairi said.

“Sit tight for now, I’ll give the driver your information, so you’ll know when your ride is there. You go in to the car, sit in there, and I’ll be here to receive you. Is that clear to you?”

 

“Very”, Riku answered.

“Kai, really. I’m sorry.”

 

“I know”, Kairi sighed.

“We’ll talk about this once you’re back, okay? I’ll see you two soon.”

 

Riku put his phone back to his pocket, and rubbed his face. Yeah, his eyes were really starting to tingle.

 

“She was not happy with us”, Sora said, as Riku sat back down.

“I could hear her all the way from there.”

 

Riku was pretty sure that everyone in the restaurant had heard her.

 

“No, she was not”, Riku nodded.

“She called us a ride back home.”

 

“Great”, Sora yawned, rubbing his face as well.

“I’m ready to crash.”

 

He looked at Riku, and Riku saw him hesitate a little.

 

“Riku”, Sora began.

“I’m s- “

 

“No, don’t”, Riku raised his hand.

“You didn’t know. It’s not your fault it turned out like this, okay?”

 

Sora looked like he was going to argue, but then he just folded his arms on the table, and rested his head down on them.

 

“Tell me when the ride is here, okay?” he asked, closing his eyes and reaching his left hand halfway over the small table.

 

“Of course”, Riku said, taking Sora’s hand in his, and leaned back on his chair. The evening outside was mixture of purple and blue, and the street lights flickered on just as the taxi pulled over in front of the restaurant.

 

 

 

Riku didn’t remember much of the ride. He had fallen asleep almost immediately after climbing in the car, and he woke up only briefly when the taxi pulled up in front of Kairi’s door. He stood there nodding off with Sora, who was basically sleeping while standing up, leaning against his side while Kairi paid the driver, and he fell asleep again right away after his head hit the pillow.

 

He woke up briefly for a second time after undetermined amount of time. The living room was full of sunlight and Kairi was moving around somewhere in the kitchen. Sora’s head was tucked under Riku’s chin and his arms were sprawled across Riku’s chest. Weird. Riku had thought that he’d taken the couch and not the futon.

Not that he was awake enough to really care. His body was way too heavy to move, so Riku just draped the blanket better around himself and fell back asleep.

 

The third time he woke up was the time he woke up properly. It wasn’t like Riku wouldn’t’ve continued sleeping for longer, but Kairi was shaking him and didn’t stop until Riku opened his eyes and sat up.

 

“I’m sorry to wake you up”, she said.

“But you have been asleep for pretty much the entire day, and you have to eat something. And preferably take a shower too.”

 

“Okay”, Riku yawned, scrambling up with slightly shaking legs.

“Could you wake Sora up too, please?”

 

Kairi looked down at Sora, who was now after Riku had moved out, positioned himself in the middle of the futon.

 

“Sure”, she said.

“There’s a towel for you already, the blue one. Are you okay with Chinese takeaway?”

 

Chinese takeaway had never sounded more delicious to Riku.

 

“More than okay”, Riku answered, before stumbling to the bathroom.

 

He took his sweet time in the shower. Warm water felt amazing on his aching muscles, and Riku almost fell back asleep in the bathtub. Kairi came in at some point to bring him clean clothes, and Riku couldn't have been less bothered about her digging through his clothes back to find underwear than he was right then.

 

Sora was indeed awake when Riku finally emerged from the shower. Sora’s skin had gotten more colour during the night, though he still looked a little ashy. He still greeted Riku with a big smile as they passed through each other as Sora went to claim the bathroom for himself.

 

Kairi was sitting at the kitchen table, her laptop open and notebooks arranged around her.

 

“I got your homework for you”, she said as Riku sat down too.

“I tried to ask you if you were up for the classes, but you just mumbled something and continued to cuddle with Sora, so I left you there.”

 

Riku decided to ignore the second part of her sentence.

 

“Thank you”, he said.

“Was Mrs. Paoa sad because I wasn’t in the class?”

 

“A little, but I told her that you were a little sick”, Kairi answered.

“Then she just wished you to get well soon and told me to tell you not to strain yourself.”

 

She glanced down at Riku’s hands. His palms were still red and aching, and looked more puffy and red than yesterday.

 

Riku breathed in deep.

 

“Kairi”, he began.

“About yesterday- “

 

“Let’s talk about it when Sora gets here too, and we are all fed”, Kairi cut him off.

“I think we have all already noticed that food makes bad things a little better.”

 

The doorbell rang, and Kairi stood up.

 

“Sora’s clothes are in that bag over there”, she pointed as he made her way to the door.

“Bring some for him, will you?”

 

Riku didn’t even bother to dig through the bag to find all the clothes necessary. He just grabbed to bag up while Kairi was paying for their food, and walked back to the bathroom.

 

“Sora?” he knocked at the door, before pushing the door slightly open.

“I brought you clothes.”

 

The bathroom was full of warm fog. Judging from the light splashing Sora had drawn himself a bath, and since the curtain was pulled in front of the tub, Riku deemed it safe to step in.

 

“Sora?” he called again. Hopefully Sora had not fallen asleep like Riku had almost done, since it was much easier to drown in to a bath than it was in a shower.

 

“Yeah?” Okay, no, he was awake.

 

“I brought you clothes”, Riku repeated.

“I think our food arrived just now, so you might want to get out before it gets cold.”

 

“Oh, okay! Thanks!” At least Sora was sounding lively now. Riku dropped the bag on the floor and turned around to leave as it sounded like Sora was going to step out of the bath, when Sora called back at him.

 

“Throw me the towel?” he asked, arm reaching out from behind the curtains.

 

Kairi was clearly having some kind of colour-coding going on, since Riku had noticed that she had draped out red towels for Sora and blue ones for Riku, while reserving all the pink ones for herself.

 

“Sure”, Riku said, picking up the red bath towel from the rack and throwing it to him.

“The clothes are right he- “

 

“Oh yeah, I get to show you the other shirt Kairi got me!” Sora stepped out of the bathtub, wrapping the towel around his waist.

“I don’t really understand brands or anything like that, but it was pretty cool and – “

 

The rest of Sora’s word drowned somewhere to the background of Riku’s mind, as his brain changed on to the panic mode. _Don’t stare don’t stare don’t stare don’t stare._

Riku pressed his fingers to fists to prevent himself from slapping his traitorous face that heated up rapidly. Oh, god, he really was like a fifteen-year-old with a raging crush, wasn’t he? He had already seen Sora multiple times without a shirt (and once without pants as well), so he had absolutely no reason to turn red like a teenage boy seeing something dirty for the first time ever.

 

Sora was still talking, adjusting the towel, and Riku bit himself to the tongue for letting his eyes momentarily fall slightly downwards. When Sora bend down to grab the clothes from the bag and Riku saw him getting ready to let go of the towel, he got the control over his body back.

 

“I, um, I’ll see if Kairi needs help in something?” he hurried to say.

“Remember to empty the tub, so she will not chew you on that.”

 

Sora blinked at him, and tilted his head, and Riku tried to not dart out of the door like an idiot.

 

“Right, thanks for reminding me”, Sora flashed him a smile, and turned back towards the bathtub.

 

Riku was not sure what happened. Sora reached his hand, and there was a surge of something familiar running down Riku’s skin, like electricity.

 

Then there was a loud bang as the faucet of the tub exploded, and water started to spray in high pressure all around the bathroom.

 

Kairi was there at the door before neither of them could say or do anything.

 

“What was that?” she asked, and her eyes widened as she saw the water flying everywhere.

“What happened?”

 

Riku looked back at Sora, who stood there, his hand partially reached out, eyes just as wide and confused as he looked back at Riku and Kairi.

 

Riku swallowed tightly.

 

“I really don’t know”, he answered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The horde of murder dolls is gone, so we can all just relax now and get back to the grand old adventures in the Ocean!
> 
> (alternative title for this Chapter is "I'm channeling my inner Nomura and showing stuff but not telling anything because questions are FUN")
> 
> This fic also has a playlist! I'm updating it as I find more songs that I think fit, and if you have suggestions, feel free to tell me :D you can find it here:   
> https://open.spotify.com/user/nrubik17xsl2p3usg315g1r8a/playlist/7zxeu9fDkJL6BHtEbCpOZy?si=mt0tDKvISYipmE4JreeeHw
> 
> Now I'm going to enjoy these last 4 days I have as a 21-year-old, before I have to start remembering to put my right age into things.


End file.
